Eat Art Travel: Joan Jonas: ‘They come to us without a word’

Joan Jonas evokes the fragility of nature within a rapidly changing situation through video, drawings and sculptural elements. In each room, two video projections stand in dialogue with one another — one represents the main motif of the space, and the other the ghost narrative. There is a continuous visual thread running throughout the exhibition. Jonas created rippled mirrors that were handcrafted in Murano specifically for this exhibition. They are placed within each room; alongside her distinctive drawings and kites, and a selection of objects that were used as props in her videos. The organization of the different elements creates the sense of a stage set. The pictures are from the pavilion’s rotunda that was lined by mirrors, with old venetian crystal beads hung from a chandelier-like structure suspended from the middle of the ceiling. The videos of ‘They come to us without a word’ were produced during a series of workshops with children performing, against video backdrops of landscapes that she shot in Nova Scotia and Brooklyn. The exhibit is animated by a soundtrack using excerpts of music by sound collaborator, jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran, with songs by Norwegian sami singer Ånde Somby.

‘Although the idea of my work involves the question of how the world is so rapidly and radically changing, I do not address the subject directly or didactically,’ she says, ‘rather, the ideas are implied poetically through sound, lighting, and the juxtaposition of images of children, animals, and landscape.’ If you're still with me, you can see that a few photographs do little to convey the overall experience of being there. That can be said of much of the more powerful work on display. One could easily spend a couple of months taking it all in. The program guide lists 207 exhibitions around town.

There are also live events, Joan Jonas and Jason Moran performed a live version They Come to Us without a Word II, a video performance by Joan Jonas with music by Jason Moran on July 20, July 21, July 22 at Teatro Piccolo Arsenale. I wish I had been there.