Stamping in the Studio

Floor plan:

Setting a Good Corner (Allegory and Metaphor) 1999
© ARS, NY and DACS, London 2006
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In 1966, just graduated, Nauman contemplated what it was that an artist was supposed to do. He concluded that 'if I was an artist and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art.' Art at this point 'became more of an activity and less of a product' and he began to use his body as a material.

Concerned to incorporate the mundane elements of daily life into his work, Nauman used his behaviour, obsessively pacing around the studio, as the starting point for a series of films and videos made from 1967-69. He recorded himself performing simple, repetitive activities, each responding to a specific 'problem' suggested in the title. Physically and mentally demanding, these actions were often performed for one hour – the length of a videotape. As a result, the threat of failure is ever present, evoking in the viewer an empathy Nauman described as a 'body response'.

Although made much later, Setting a Good Corner (Allegory and Metaphor) 1999, responds to a similar set of concerns. Once again, the artist records himself performing a repetitive, mundane task, this time from the daily life on his ranch in New Mexico.

The figure in these recordings, which are endlessly looped, becomes a metaphor for the rituals and struggles of human existence and owes much to the plays and stories of Samuel Beckett that Nauman first read in 1966. Nauman shares with Beckett an obsession with the human condition: both use repetitive, non-productive and often solitary physical activity to reveal the lot of humankind – its modes of behaviour, frustrations, abilities and frailty.  

Works in this section
a from Studies for Holograms (a-e) 1970 Tate Collection	b from Studies for Holograms (a-e) 1970 Tate Collection	c from Studies for Holograms (a-e) 1970 Tate Collection	d from Studies for Holograms (a-e) 1970 Tate Collection	e from Studies for Holograms (a-e) 1970 Tate Collection
Setting a Good Corner (Allegory and Metaphor) 1999 enlarge	Setting a Good Corner (Allegory and Metaphor) 1999 enlarge	Setting a Good Corner (Allegory and Metaphor) 1999 enlarge	Setting a Good Corner (Allegory and Metaphor) 1999 enlarge	Setting a Good Corner (Allegory and Metaphor) 1999 enlarge
Stamping in the Studio 1968 enlarge	Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk) 1968 enlarge