A Pioneer of Media Art

The American Bruce Nauman (b. Fort Wayne, US, 1941; lives and works in New Mexico, US) ranks among the preeminent visual artists of our time. For six decades, he has worked in an extraordinarily broad range of media, shattering the bounds of established genres and spearheading new ones along the way. His expanded conception of art encompasses wax casts, neon signs, physical contortions, word play, immersive audio and video environments, and the studio as a site of exploration. Nauman, who came of age amid the political and social upheavals of the 1960s, never abided by any rigid distinctions in art; instead remaining to this day, as he puts it, open to "the possibilities of what art can be." Above all, Nauman's work seduces and thrills viewers through a process-based approach which melds bodily experience with a wide variety of art forms.

The publication enhances the pioneering artist's largest survey exhibition in Asia to date, at Tai Kwun Contemporary in Hong Kong, with its multifaceted selection by the editors who have compiled interviews on and with the artist and his colleagues. Cao Fei, Anne Imhof, Andrea Lissoni and Nicholas Serota, Meredith Monk, Philippe Parreno, Paul Pfeiffer, Robert Storr, Willoughby Sharp, Zhang Peili, and Samson Young among other key contributors are drawing historical connections and opening up fresh perspectives on Nauman's oeuvre. Texts by the exhibition co-curators Carlos Basualdo, Caroline Bourgeois, Pi Li, and the Tai Kwun Contemporary team, are complemented by introductions to historic interviews by Joan Simon, as well as an array of supporting documentation and images offering new insight into Nauman's enduring relevance amidst a changing media landscape.