Bruce nauman.AC: Bruce Nauman "Mapping the Studio | (Fat Chance John Cage)

Nauman, Bruce - Litz, Christine / König, Kasper

ISBN 10: 3883756857 / ISBN 13: 9783883756851

Published by Museum Ludwig, Köln, 2003

About this Item

Text: English German. 44 p.; ill.; 23 x 30,5 cm. "What triggered this piece were the mice. We had a big influx of field mice that summer, in the house and in the studio. They were so plentiful that even the cat was getting bored with them. I was sitting around the studio being frustrated because I didn't have any new ideas, and I decided that you just have to work with what you've got. What I had was this cat and the mice, and I happened to have a video camera in the studio that had infrared capability. So I set it up and turned it on at night and let it run when I wasn't there, just to see what I'd get." Fine. Seller Inventory # 001562

Bibliographic Details

Title: Bruce nauman.AC: Bruce Nauman "Mapping the ...

Publisher: Museum Ludwig, Köln

Publication Date: 2003

Binding: Hard Cover

Edition: Exhibition Catalogue.

About this title

Synopsis:

In this latest work by Bruce Nauman, first mounted to great acclaim at the Dia Art Foundation in 2001, Nauman presents seven large-scale projections of his New Mexico studio interior. Forty-two hours of tape were shot over 42 nights using infra-red lenses, and reveal the basic preconditions for his artistic production: his empty studio.

About the Author:

Born in 1941 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Bruce Nauman has been recognized since the early 1970s as one of the most innovative and provocative of America's contemporary artists. Nauman finds inspiration in the activities, speech, and materials of everyday life. Confronted with 'What to do' in his studio soon after graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1964 with a BFA, and then the University of California, Davis in 1966 with an MFA, Nauman had the simple but profound realization that "if I was an artist and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art. At this point art became more of an activity and less of a product." Working in the diverse mediums of sculpture, video, film, printmaking, performance, and installation, Nauman concentrates less on the development of a characteristic style and more on the way in which a process or activity can transform or become a work of art. A survey of his diverse output demonstrates the alternately political, prosaic, spiritual, and crass methods by which Nauman examines life in all its gory details, mapping the human arc between life and death. The text from an early neon work proclaims: "The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths." Whether or not we--or even Nauman--agree with this statement, the underlying subtext of the piece emphasizes the way in which the audience, artist and culture at large are involved in the resonance a work of art will ultimately have. Nauman lives in New Mexico.