Mirage

Joan Jonas

1976, 31 min, b&w, silent, 16 mm film on video

Writes Jonas: "For Mirage I made a film of drawing, again and again, images on a blackboard, and then erasing them. Reading the essays collected in Spiritual Disciplines, I got another idea to use drawings, also in Mirage, which I called 'Endless Drawings' after those described in the Melukean...

Organic Honey's Vertical Roll

Joan Jonas

1973-99, 15 min, b&w, sound

This documentation of a 1972 performance, in which Jonas performs as "Organic Honey," includes many of her signature devices: mirrors, masks, and the use of video for spatial, temporal, and psychological layering. In this prescient work, Jonas relates the theatrical space of her live performance...

Songdelay

Joan Jonas

1973, 18:35 min, b&w, sound, 16 mm film on HD video

This 1973 black-and-white film is a rediscovered classic. Performing with a "cast" that includes Gordon Matta-Clark, Jonas choreographs a theater of space, movement, and sound, with the urban landscape of New York in a featured role. Jonas creates a highly original if enigmatic theatrical...

Wind

Joan Jonas

1968, 5:37 min, b&w, silent, 16 mm film on HD video

Wind is a 1968 performance film, recently restored. Cutting between snowy fields and a raw seashore, Jonas focuses on a group of performers moving through a stark, windswept landscape. The 16mm film — silent, black and white, jerky and sped-up — evokes early cinema, while its content locates it...