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Joan Jonas

CCA Kitakyushu Project Gallery presented a new work by Joan Jonas, who lives and works in New York.

“A few years ago, inspired by a book I saw about beautiful and strange forms living in the deepest parts of the sea, I called my performance class at MIT “Action: Archeology of the Deep Sea”

“I also found a Japanese dictionary of fish in a second hand store in San Diego. I carried it around with me and copied the very detailed color renditions of all the different fish.”

“At the same time I was developing the work Reanimation, based on Under the Glacier by the Icelandic writer Halldor Laxness. One of the first thought that comes is that glaciers are melting which leads one to imagine a watery world. I then went to Norway to record the landscape in the Lofoten Islands inside the Arctic Circle and there in an aquarium recorded some very strange prehistoric looking fish which I included in the video narrative of Reanimation.”

“In the performance version of this work I drew fish in blue ink. The ink spilled down the page. I became interested in repeating these drawings. As I often do, I wanted to continue to develop certain actions or ideas. In this case, in Kitakyushu, while still referring to the Japanese fish dictionary, I draw the various fish over and over in blue ink, curious about how the form will change. I am drawing about one hundred of these large performance drawings, thinking how, such a group, hanging on lines strung across the room, would appear. I am also interested in how a title might suggest another reality, or thoughts about fish.” – Joan Jonas

Joan Jonas stayed as Professor of Research Program from January 7th to 27th, 2013.

This post is also available in: Japanese