Eek! Yikes! Love the tidying mouse video? Here are the greatest mice in art

Photographer Rodney Holbrook isn’t the first artist to capture a rodent in his studio. From Keith Haring to Paul Klee, painters have long been fascinated – and tormented – by the creatures

There are no mice in cave art. Stone age artists were too awed by mammoths to notice the tiny rodents. But by the time of the Roman empire, mice appear in mosaics, stealing the remnants of banquets while Roman cats fail to catch them. And mice have been depicted at play ever since, in just about every human habitat. One of their favourites is the artist’s studio: a messy setting with lots of materials, from the smelly to the potentially edible.

The tidying mouse in wildlife photographer Rodney Holbrook’s film has gone viral after being caught by a night vision camera. This little creature has us all charmed – but it’s hardly the first time an artist has noticed little intruders in the workspace. Bruce Nauman’s video masterpiece Mapping the Studio I and II, a three-screen epic study of randomness and chance, may seem far removed from Holbrook’s mousy footage yet it has similar origins.

Continue reading...