The series begins with Joan Jonas’s first film, Wind, made in 1968 on a gusty, snow-covered beach in Long Island. Wind becomes an invisible character in the film, affecting the movement of its performers and the forms created by their fluttering capes. Wind is followed by Jean Vigo’s Taris and Jonas’s Disturbances, in which the surface of a pool presents possibilities for a distorted, upside-down and even layered image.
In Songdelay, Three Returns and Barking, Jonas plays with perceptual phenomena in outdoor environments, using sound and off-screen space to mysterious effect. The programme's final video, Waltz, engages most directly with traditions of amateur and outdoor theatre. Discussing the video with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jonas said, ‘In order to do a performance, even for the camera, I have to create a very specific place, kind of a little theater set within the landscape framed by the camera.'
Wherever I might be, I work with the landscape as a setting for my video and my outside performances. I’ve always used landscape as a backdrop and a space. I’m attracted by the beauty, the strangeness and awe-inspiring scale, and also the close connection with what lies underneath
Joan Jonas
Programme:
Introduction by Joan Jonas
Joan Jonas, Wind 1968, 16mm, black and white, silent, 6 min
Jean Vigo, Taris 1931, 35mm transferred to digital, black and white, sound, 10 min
Joan Jonas, Disturbances 1974, video, black and white, sound, 11 min
Joan Jonas, Songdelay 1973, 16mm, black and white, sound, 19 min
Joan Jonas, Three Returns 1973, video, black and white, sound, 14 min
Joan Jonas, Barking 1973, video, black and white, sound, 3 min
Joan Jonas, Waltz 2003, video, colour, sound, 7 min
Joan Jonas Disturbances 1974, video still. Courtesy the artist and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
Joan Jonas Wind 1968, film still
Joan Jonas Three Returns 1973, video still. Courtesy the artist and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
Joan Jonas Barking 1973, video still. Courtesy the artist and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
