Violin Tuned D.E.E.D., 2010

This project replaces a single note from Bruce Nauman’s 1969 video Violin Tuned D.E.A.D., a work in which the artist, standing alone in his studio in front of a camera, repeatedly bows the open strings of a retuned violin for nearly an hour.

My project reframes Nauman’s musical death pronouncement as both a public performance and a video installation. I retune the artist’s musical half-joke, recasting it as a meditation on property, ownership, and labor.

Performed by violinist Tom Chiu as part of Non-cochlear Sound, New York, 2010

Bruce Nauman, Violin Tuned D.E.A.D. (1969)