The Galleria Alessandra Bonomo in Rome is the site of a new installation by Joan Jonas designed specifically for the space. Jonas, the emblematic figure who nonetheless stands as an outward-looking feminist outsider in the self-absorbed world of video art, is no stranger to Italy, having mounted previous performances in Milan and appearing several times on behalf of the United States at the Biennale di Venezia.
Jonas, who began with dance and progressed to black and white videos in the 1970s, has evolved her own language using sound, the body, and movement, incorporating influences from mythology, literature, and her travels particularly to Japan and Iceland.
The work at the Bonomo gallery, called Minds of Their Own, encompasses elements such as a large projection screen, various mirrors that reflect the projections, randomly found objects and objects constructed for the performances, and videos and drawings that relate space and time, used as props. A score by New York City-based jazz musician and composer Jason Moran accompanies the work.
Jonas’s 21st Century work focuses on the fragility of nature and its connection with the human condition, as exemplified by her installations for Venice Biennale 2009 and 2015. Jonas is professor emeritus at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). The exhibition is on until the end of February.
Reference: Susan Morgan. “Joan Jonas: Images and Sounds in the Material of Time.” Afterall: A Journal of art, Context and Enquiry, April 2004, Issue 9, pp.20-26.
Mind of Their Own, 2016. Galleria Alessandra Bonomo.
The Shape the Scent the Feel of Things. Dia Beacon, 2005.
The Shape the Scent the Feel of Things. The Brooklyn Museum, 2005.
Below, They Come to Us Without a Word, 2015. The U.S. Pavilion, the 56th Biennale di Venezia.
Further Reading: Uta Grosenick and Sylvia Martin. Video Art. Köln; Los Angeles: Taschen, 2006
Filipa Ramos. Animals. Cambridge, MA.:The MIT Press, 2016
Posted by Jean Marie Carey