Searching for new narrative methods, Jonas first developed Volcano Saga in 1985 after visiting Iceland with video artist Steina Vasulka. The performance is an interpretation of the Laxdaela Saga, a thirteenth-century Icelandic folktale about a woman and her four dreams. In 1989 Jonas adapted the story into a video featuring actors Tilda Swinton and Ron Vawter. In the video Swinton and Vawter appear superimposed over images of the Icelandic landscape—which itself becomes a kind of character. Subsequently developed into an installation, Volcano Saga was in Jonas’s words, “the beginning of my synthesizing the development of the female character, the story as a mirror, and the volcanic landscapes as representation of narrative.”
Joan Jonas: Good Night Good Morning, March 17–July 6, 2024
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Joan Jonas
American, born 1936 30 works onlineFew artists can claim to have initiated a new form of art. Joan Jonas, however, was crucial to the formation of two— video and performance .
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