Ezz Monem → Studio ghosts: or did Nauman have a studio at Gertrude Contemporary?

Studio ghosts: or did Nauman have a studio at Gertrude Contemporary?

16 April 2025

One-night solo exhibition at WORKING AT HEIGHTS, hosted by Artery Cooperative, Melbourne, 21 March 2025. The work was also exhibited as part of the group exhibition Séance at GalleryGalleryInc.

During a residency at Gertrude Contemporary, an artist discovered a set of video tapes in the basement labeled Nauman. Intrigued, he played them on an old Handycam he had as a teenager. The footage appeared to be CCTV-like recordings of Gertrude’s interior spaces, including his own studio, where nothing significant seemed to happen. But as he kept watching, an unsettling phenomenon emerged.

Referencing Bruce Nauman’s Mapping the Studio I (Fat Chance John Cage), I set up cameras in various locations inside Gertrude Contemporary at night while I was preparing to move out of the studio. Continuing my ongoing exploration of the representation of the invisible body in photographic and moving image mediums, I made myself invisible in the gallery space while the cameras were filming.

The work draws on Egyptian films Sirr Taqiyyat Al-Ikhfa (The Secret of the Invisible Hat), ‘Ad Li Yantaqim (Back for Revenge), as well as Egyptian films about the prophet Mohamed, which the artist previously appropriated in In Search of Mohamed.

Thanks to Ayman Kaake, Tim Woodward, Brigit Ryan, and Ian Bunyi.

Excerpts from the two-channels version, video and sound, 18 minutes 19 seconds, looped.

Studio ghosts: or did Nauman have a studio at Gertrude Contemporary?, Two-channel video and sound, 18 minutes 19 seconds, looped, CRT TVs and Speakers, 2024–2025, at GalleryGalleryInc.

‘Studio ghosts: or did Nauman have a studio at Gertrude Contemporary?’, multi-channel video and sound installation, 2024/2025, installation shots from the one-night installation at WORKING AT HEIGHTS, hosted by Artery Cooperative, Melbourne. Photo: Kenneth Suico.