Performance 7: Mirage by Joan Jonas
December 18, 2009–May 31, 2010
The Yoshiko and Akio Morita Media Gallery, second floor
Part of the Performance Exhibition Series
Learn more about the publication Modern Women: Women Artists at the Museum of Modern Art
Inspired by a trip the artist took to India, Joan Jonas’s Mirage (1976/2005) was originally conceived as a 1976 performance for the screening room of New York’s Anthology Film Archives. In it, Jonas carried out a series of movements, such as running as a form of percussion and as gestural drawing, while interacting with a variety of sculptural components and video projections. In 1994, the artist repurposed these elements—metal cones suggesting the form of volcanoes, videos of erupting volcanoes, wooden hoops, a mask, photographs, and chalkboards, among other items—as a discrete installation, which was itself reconfigured in 2005. At MoMA, the artist once again reimagines the work in an installation that combines elements of ritual, memory, repetition, and rehearsal with games, drawn actions, and syncopated rhythms.
The exhibition is organized by Barbara London, Associate Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art.
This exhibition is presented in conjunction with MoMA's publication of Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art (June 2010).
The Performance Exhibition Series is made possible by MoMA’s Wallis Annenberg Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art through the Annenberg Foundation.
This exhibition is presented in conjunction with MoMA's publication of Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art (June 2010).
The Performance Exhibition Series is made possible by MoMA’s Wallis Annenberg Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art through the Annenberg Foundation.
Joan Jonas. Mirage (installation detail). 1976/1994/2003. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Richard Massey, Clarissa Alcock Bronfman, Agnes Gund, and Committee on Media Funds. Courtesy Yvon Lambert, Paris and New York