Joan Jonas
My New Theatre VI, Good Night Good Morning
2005
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Joan Jonas
My New Theatre VI, Good Night Good Morning
2005
Physical Qualities
Single-channel video (color, sound), monitor, artist-designed structure, Duration: 16:00 min.; shown in wood box with trestles and wood stool, installation dimensions variable
Credit Line
Dr. Max Stern Trust Fund
Object Number
2010.38
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
