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Joan Jonas

Good Night Good Morning

1975

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Joan Jonas

Good Night Good Morning

1975

Physical Qualities Single-channel video (black and white, sound), monitor, Duration: 11 minutes, 38 seconds, continuous loop
Credit Line Dr. Max Stern Trust Fund
Object Number 2010.37
Starting in the late 1960s, Joan Jonas began to explore performance as a vehicle for art-making and as an alternative to the more conventional formats of sculpture and painting. Many of the works, which often contain choreographed movements, symbolic forms, and gestures that evoke ritual, were captured on video. The footage is now shown on monitors and as projections in installations that allow the artist to revisit ephemeral actions in new spatial configurations. This artwork consists of performances enacted for the camera alone rather than for a live audience. In 1976, the artist greeted her camera every morning and every night for three weeks. She repeated the process in 2006, filming her reflection in a convex mirror which was moved to various locations throughout her home. Together the recordings reveal a self-portrait that unfolds over time, both in the space of one day and over a period of thirty years.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 2010; Wilkinson Gallery, London
Seeing Now: Photography Since 1960

Artist

Joan Jonas

1935–2000

born New York, NY 1936
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