Fort Mason Art presented the U.S. premiere of They Come to Us without a Word, a major multimedia installation by Joan Jonas, January 17-March 10, 2019. Originally commissioned for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale, where it received a Special Mention from the International Jury, the installation was presented free and open to the public. Loan support was generously provided by the Kramlich Collection.
Inspired by Halldór Laxness’s novel Under the Glacier, Jonas’s summers in Nova Scotia, and the fragility of nature, the installation integrated video, drawings, sound, objects, and performance to construct five immersive galleries organized around central images: Bees, Fish, Mirror, Wind, and Homeroom. Ghost stories from Cape Breton oral traditions formed a nonlinear narrative linking the galleries. The work depicted a fractured yet interdependent chain of life, mirroring human interference with nature’s ecosystems in the Anthropocene. Jonas pioneered interdisciplinary art forms for five decades, blending video, sculpture, and performance to shift traditional models of image-making and storytelling.
RELATED PROGRAMMING:
Jonas presented two live performances of Moving Off the Land (January 19-20, 2019), a tribute to the ocean’s power commissioned by TBA21-Academy and recently presented at Tate Modern. The multilayered performance combined readings, dance, live drawing, and projections portraying biodiverse ocean inhabitants and endangered marine cultures. Related panel discussions included “These Green Thoughts: On Artists and Climate Action” with JD Beltran (CCA Center for Impact Director) and Gordon Knox (SFAI President), and “Joan Jonas Is On Our Mind (REPRISE)” at SFAI featuring Anthony Huberman (CCA Wattis Institute), Jeanne C. Finley, Jacqueline Francis, and Frances Richard.
Joan Jonas (b. 1936, New York) is a pioneer of video and performance art emerging from the late 1960s New York art world. An early adopter of video technology, her innovative work spans video, performance, drawing, sound, and installation. Key works include Wind (1968), Mirror Check (1970), and Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll (1972). Her practice explores the figure in landscape, ritual use of gesture and objects, and natural ecosystems at risk in the Anthropocene. Jonas received the 2018 Kyoto Prize and was the subject of a major Tate Modern retrospective.
From January 17, 2019 through March 10, 2019 Fort Mason Art presented Joan Jonas: They Come to Us without a Word
Joan Jonas:
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