Dia Center for the Arts and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) will celebrate the early film and video work of Joan Jonas with a screening at Dia on September 28, 2000. Highlights of the evening will include the first screening in fifteen years of Jonas' 1976 film "Mirage," which will be projected simultaneously with one of her videos, and the premiere of the newly-rediscovered color video of her 1973 performance "Glass Puzzle."
Dia Center for the Arts and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) will
celebrate the early film and video work of Joan Jonas with a
screening at Dia on September 28, 2000. Highlights of the
evening will include the first screening in fifteen years of
Jonas' 1976 film "Mirage," which will be projected
simultaneously with one of her videos, and the premiere of the
newly-rediscovered color video of her 1973 performance "Glass
Puzzle."
The program will also include Jonas' 16mm films "Wind" (a film,
recently restored and transferred to video, recording the
artist's 1968 performance), "Veil" (a 1971 collaboration with
Richard Serra), and "Songdelay" (a 1973 film, newly available
on video, which includes Gordon Matta-Clark among its cast). In
these early films, Jonas uses the medium - often black and
white and silent - to examine the human body, its ritualistic
movements, and the spaces it occupies.
This celebration of Jonas' pioneering work will take place on
Dia's rooftop at 548 West 22nd Street in New York City on
Thursday, September 28, at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.
Acclaimed multi-media and performance artist Joan Jonas was a
central figure in the performance art movement of the
mid-1960s. Key early works examine space and perceptual
phenomena, merging elements of dance, Japanese Noh and
Kabuki-theater, drawing, and sculpture. In these solo
performances, Jonas developed an emblematic vocabulary
synthesizing ritualized gestures and symbolic objects,
including masks, costumes, and mirrors. Jonas began using video
in performance in "Organic Honey's Visual Telepathy" (1972),
incorporating live cameras and monitors as a means of
transforming and layering images, space and time. Her
performance-based videos include the influential 1972 "Vertical
Roll," in which she explores female identity while employing an
interrupted electronic signal - or "vertical roll" - as a
formal device that dislocates space and fractures the recorded
image. Jonas' films from the late 1960s and early 1970s,
including those to be screened at Dia, extend her enigmatic
language of gesture, drawing, and objects. Jonas' recent work -
installations, performance, and photographs - continues her
signature inquiry into theatricality and ritual. Jonas received
the 3rd Annual Polaroid Video Art Award in 1987 and the
American Film Institute's Maya Deren Award in 1988. She lives
and works in New York City.
Dia Center for the Arts is a tax-exempt charitable
organization. Established in 1974, the organization has become
one of the largest in the United States dedicated to
contemporary art and culture. In fulfilling this commitment,
Dia sustains diverse programming in visual arts, poetry,
education, and critical discourse and debate. Exhibition hours
during the 2000-2001 season are Wednesday - Sunday, 12 noon to
6 pm, beginning September 13, 2000. Admission is $6 ($3 for
students and seniors and free to members).
Electronic Arts Intermix is a nonprofit media arts organization
that is one of the world's leading resources for artists' video
and new media. Founded in 1971, EAI serves artists, educators,
curators, and diverse audiences through a wide range of
programs, including the distribution of an international
collection of artists' tapes, ranging from historical works of
the 1960s to new works by emerging media artists of the 1990s.
For more information about Dia Center for the Arts, please
visit Dia's website
For more information about Electronic Arts Intermix, please
visit EAI's website at http://www.eai.org
Media Contact:
FITZ & CO -
Jennie Prebor / Agnes Han -
Tel 212 627-1455 Fax 212 627-0654 E-mail: artpr@fitzandco.com
Dia center for the arts -
542 west 22nd street new york 10011 -
212 989 5566 fax 212 989 4055