December 6, 1941

Bruce Nauman (December 6, 1941) is an American artist who works in multi-media. His home and studio are in Galisteo, New Mexico. Nauman studied math and physics in college, and cites as his influences modern cultural giants such as Samuel Becket and Philip Glass. An example of his work is a neon sculpture he constructed which reads: The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths. He and his wife, painter Susan Rothenburg, have lived in New Mexico since 1979.

His video project, Mapping the Studio I (Fat Chance John Cage) (2001) is composed of four videos which show his studio in his absence, the result of situating an infrared camera and leaving it on. The result has been called "immersive surveillance" and one thing surveilled was his cat, and the mice and moths the cat hunted, in the artist's studio.

Here is a shot:

In 2002 his agent sold the videos, separately, to various museums, and The Tate paid 1.2 million for their version.

No scholars were harmed in the drafting of this post, but I am indebted to www.southwillard.com, and the book, The studio reader: on the space of artists (2010) by Mary Jane Jacob and Michelle Grabner.