Bruce Nauman, 'Double Steel Cage Piece'

"I woke up, naked, strapped to a bed, in a very white room. The room measured approximately 4m x 4m. The room had three solid walls, with the fourth wall consisting of metal bars separating it from a larger room. I am not sure how long I remained in the bed. After some time, I think it was several days, but can't remember exactly, I was transferred to a chair where I was kept, shackled by hands and feet for what I think was the next 2 to 3 weeks. During this time I developed blisters on the underside of my legs due to the constant sitting. I was only allowed to get up from the chair to go [to] the toilet, which consisted of a bucket. Water for cleaning myself was provided in a plastic bottle.

I was given no solid food during the first two or three weeks, while sitting on the chair. I was only given Ensure and water to drink. At first the Ensure made me vomit, but this became less with time.

The cell and room were air-conditioned and were very cold. Very loud, shouting type music was constantly playing. It kept repeating about every fifteen minutes twenty-four hours a day. Sometimes the music stopped and was replaced by a loud hissing or crackling noise."

-- Abu Zubaydeh, as told to the International Committee of the Red Cross regarding his detention in Afghanistan, where he was detained for approximately nine months from May, 2002 to February, 2003. The ICRC concluded that the United States' treatment of Abu Zubaydeh, more fully detailed in this ICRC report, was in contravention of international law and that "the ill-treatment to which [detainees] were subjected while held in the CIA program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture."

To read first-hand reports of America's torture of suspected terrorists, including the rest of Abu Zubaydeh's account, see page 28 of the ICRC report. The report was first made public by Mark Danner in "US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites" in the New York Review of Books, April 9, 2009. 

Image: Bruce Nauman, Double Steel Cage Piece, 1974, from the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. This is an installation shot from the ongoing Nauman exhibit at Ca' Foscari, part of the Bruce Nauman presentation at and around the 2009 Venice Biennale. Photo: Michele Lamanna, courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Related: Bruce Nauman's 1981 'hanging chairs' sculptures become us. Part two.