«So a year or so ago I found myself going in the studio and just being frustrated that I didn’t have any new ideas to work on. What triggered this piece were the mice.» (Kraynak, 2005, p. 398)
Bruce Nauman. Mapping the Studio I (Fat Chance John Cage), 2001. © Bruce Nauman/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Stuart Tyson [online] At: https://www.diaart.org/exhibition/exhibitions-projects/bruce-nauman-mapping-the-studio-i-fat-chance-john-cage-exhibition (Accessed 13.11.2023)
Bruce Nauman, in his interview with curator Michael Auping, points to the beginning of a new project that was instigated by a mouse.
“Mapping the Studio” is an artwork which can be presented in one of the three versions of video installations (of different video lengths and colours). The artist filmed his studio with six cameras at night, when there was no one, only mice, a cat and bugs/spiders...
«MA: In terms of reading this symbolically, were you thinking of the cat as a surrogate for the artist, chasing mouse/muse?
BN: Not really. I was interested in the relationship between the two of them, but more in a psychological way. Their relationship exists as a sort of a paradox between a joke and reality. …» (Kraynak, 2005, p. 401)
Such an unexpected turn in the choice of topic for his research speaks about the artist’s keen interest in all common topics. This is also reflected in his diversified works. They are not alike and could have been done by someone else.
The drama and philosophy of any relationship, and indeed life itself, the passage of time can be shown through a video where two protagonists must somehow interact. Here, I suspect that, after all, the artist thought that the cat would eat the mouse on camera. And yet, a work six hours long, where in general the viewer luckily will not see the movement, rhetorically transports the trained viewer into allegorical games.
The same imagination and the ability of the artist and viewer to interpret unusual objects, events, etc. opens up ways and possibilities for using anything and everything to create art. It´s almost like “the studio as a place that frames the art.” (Fisher, Fortnum, 2013 p. 74). Analysing the statement that in general, the artist does not know what he is doing, Fisher and Fortnum 2013 highlight the moment of video shooting as an element indicating knowledge of not knowing of what is happening in the artist's studio. I would call it an instinctive search for answers to questions that life raises.
«The things that seem important at first end up being abandoned, and what is at first abandoned ends up being the most productive. Chance often works this way, when something that has been cast aside breaks through to something new. » (Fer, 2005, p. 186)
My attraction to the simple and accessible - wood, nails, cardboard, glue, etc. appeared a very long time ago and this was caused by my childhood passions. As a child, I lived all summer with my grandmother outside the city and my father had a workshop and an old shed with all sorts of unnecessary things. I was allowed to do whatever I wanted. Therefore, I chose the most beautiful old pieces of wood and made crafts from them. It was mainly something for my room because I wanted to be an interior designer.
Now, many years later, I understand that this is a psychological reflection of the brain on my history. I grew up on 45 square meters with five family members, I had no privacy, no right to something of my own. Therefore, in the summer, I created for my space and this love for freedom of expression through materials that were simply at hand gave me happiness.
Now working with debris and leftovers in my studio I feel happiness and freedom. It’s as if I’m counteracting with the help of this debris to what hurt me. Disrespect and belittling of me by adults. Only the difference is that now is this garbage changing its meaning and becoming an art.
Bibliography and references:
1. Please Pay Attention Please: Bruce Nauman’s Words (2005) Writings And Interviews, Bruce Nauman, Edite D By Janet Kraynak, The Mit Press | Cambridge, Massachusetts | London, England
2. Briony Fer, The Scatter: Sculpture as Leftover, 2005 from Materiality: Documents of Contemporary Art, London: Whitechapel Gallery and The M IT Press, e d Petra Lange-Berndt, p.186, 2015 [online] At: https://learn.oca.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=223§ion=6#section-6 (Accessed 13.11.2023)
3. Fisher, E., & Fortnum, R. (2013). On Not Knowing: How Artists Think. Black Dog Publishing.
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