Following her studies in Art History and training in Visual Art (primarily in sculpture), Joan Jonas turned towards performance and video art, and would become an important pioneer of these arts. Her work attempts to express inner life, repressed emotions. In her performances, whether as a dancer, witch, or narrator, she adopts the persona of characters she considers troubling and subversive, and through these diverse portrayals, she questions her role as an artist and woman. She opposed the minimalist trends prevalent in the American art scene during the 1960s and 1970s by progressively integrating words and narratives that were capable of describing highly expressive psychic landscapes. Her direct involvement, as the physical and psychological source of her work – both vulnerable and literal – becomes a central tenet of her performances. Thus, starting in 1968, she created multidimensional works using sound and video images, combining choreographed movements, improvisation, drawings, and accessories. The mirror, the mask, and the video monitor are three constants of her eminently theatrical work. From Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll (1972) to her more recent work such as Revolted by the Thought of Known Places… Swenney Astray (1994), a plethora of female characters succeed each other, drawn from ancient or contemporary lore – the artist often choosing to revisit medieval fables or epic poems. Between illusionism and colourful carnival, she never stopped exploring new narrative forms. She received many prizes and grants, namely from the New York State Council on the Arts. In 1994, an important retrospective was mounted by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in her honour. Her work is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
Clara SCHULMANN
