WEBVTT 00:00:07.299 --> 00:00:12.179 ["Joan Jonas: New York Performances"] 00:00:25.580 --> 00:00:30.499 Growing up in New York, I was very lucky to be living near museums. 00:00:30.499 --> 00:00:33.350 I remember going to MoMA and going to the Metropolitan Museum, 00:00:33.350 --> 00:00:37.230 and I remember the first time I ever went to the opera. 00:00:38.500 --> 00:00:40.540 It was a Wagner opera. I went with my mother, 00:00:40.550 --> 00:00:42.769 and I remember I had toys that I was playing with. 00:00:42.769 --> 00:00:45.170 I just remember the valkyrie-- 00:00:45.170 --> 00:00:47.850 the women dressed in armor. 00:00:50.300 --> 00:00:53.340 Big women with horns on their head. 00:00:56.340 --> 00:00:58.600 Then later when I was a little bit older, for instance, 00:00:58.609 --> 00:01:01.179 I was lucky enough to see a Balanchine piece: 00:01:01.179 --> 00:01:05.019 "Afternoon of a Faun" with Tanaquil Le Clercq. 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:10.420 You know, things like that make a big impression on you when you're young. 00:01:11.090 --> 00:01:15.870 ["Organic Honey's Vertical Roll" (1973)] 00:01:20.630 --> 00:01:22.880 I wanted to develop my own language, 00:01:22.880 --> 00:01:26.810 and the minute I started performing, I began to invent in a different way-- 00:01:26.810 --> 00:01:28.650 through my body movements, through... 00:01:28.650 --> 00:01:33.550 "How do I use music, sound, and three-dimensional space?" 00:01:34.570 --> 00:01:39.520 I was very interested in film and how to translate my work into another medium 00:01:39.520 --> 00:01:42.820 so that it would not disappear. 00:01:50.710 --> 00:01:53.280 My first film, it came from an indoor performance-- 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:54.690 my first performance at... 00:01:54.690 --> 00:01:57.420 it was at Saint Peter's Church, actually. 00:01:57.420 --> 00:02:00.940 We decided to film it outdoors; I wanted to put it outdoors. 00:02:01.780 --> 00:02:02.820 ["Wind" (1968)] 00:02:02.820 --> 00:02:05.720 And it was just coincidence--it was the coldest, windiest day of the year 00:02:05.720 --> 00:02:08.280 in the Long Island Sound, right on the beach. 00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:09.239 It was very, very difficult. 00:02:09.239 --> 00:02:11.099 It was really freezing. 00:02:17.420 --> 00:02:20.470 I went there with a group of young artists who were my friends 00:02:20.470 --> 00:02:22.110 and we worked together. 00:02:22.110 --> 00:02:26.030 Judy Padow, Eve Corey, Keith Hollingworth... 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:28.180 they were the performers. 00:02:28.190 --> 00:02:29.770 I was in it, too. 00:02:30.720 --> 00:02:34.520 Peter Campus did the camera, and then we edited it together. 00:02:45.320 --> 00:02:49.380 [Songdelay by Joan Jonas] 00:02:58.060 --> 00:03:00.700 ["Songdelay" (1973)] 00:03:00.700 --> 00:03:03.740 [sound of two blocks being clapped against each other] 00:03:03.740 --> 00:03:06.440 [sound of a ship's horn] 00:03:07.220 --> 00:03:10.630 In some of my pieces there are other artists, 00:03:10.630 --> 00:03:13.170 like the outdoor piece, "Songdelay". 00:03:16.440 --> 00:03:19.680 The people in that little group was Gordon Matta-Clark, 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:22.480 and Carol Gooden, and Tina Girouard, 00:03:22.480 --> 00:03:25.800 and Steve Paxton, and Penelope. 00:03:27.980 --> 00:03:32.800 [sound of two blocks being clapped against each other, delayed from the visuals] 00:03:35.810 --> 00:03:42.810 I'd set it up and give them all kinds of props and objects or tasks. 00:03:52.780 --> 00:03:57.500 For instance, Gordon and Carol just painted a circle and a line. 00:03:57.510 --> 00:03:58.680 That's what they did. 00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:01.640 And then they walked back and forth with a stick. 00:04:01.640 --> 00:04:04.280 Penelope, I gave her the sticks to play with 00:04:04.290 --> 00:04:07.069 and she stuck them in her pants and did a little dance. 00:04:07.069 --> 00:04:12.309 So, people both followed directions and then they played with the objects. 00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:15.950 So it was very playful and people had more time, 00:04:15.950 --> 00:04:20.260 and I'd say it was a more relaxed, kind of, atmosphere. 00:04:20.260 --> 00:04:22.560 In a way, we all helped each other and worked together, 00:04:22.569 --> 00:04:26.199 and people really enjoyed being in other people's works. 00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:29.460 You know, everybody had time to do that. 00:04:31.100 --> 00:04:35.340 In the Sixties and Seventies, it was comparatively easy to do a work outdoors. 00:04:35.340 --> 00:04:37.360 You didn't have to get permission--you could just go there. 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:39.830 And there was many interesting sites, 00:04:39.830 --> 00:04:42.639 like the place where I performed "Songdelay". 00:04:43.220 --> 00:04:44.920 I first did it at Jones Beach, 00:04:44.930 --> 00:04:49.449 but then brought it to Chambers and the West Side, right on the river. 00:04:49.449 --> 00:04:51.749 And the piers were still there. It was beautiful! 00:04:51.749 --> 00:04:52.649 [sound of a ship's horn] 00:04:57.490 --> 00:05:01.270 So that's all gone now. You can't do that anymore. 00:05:13.080 --> 00:05:15.360 ["Street Scene" (1976)] 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:18.360 [sounds of people singing in the streets] 00:05:32.400 --> 00:05:35.540 Then another time later in 1976, 00:05:35.540 --> 00:05:39.339 I went down at night with Pat Steir and Andy Mann, 00:05:39.339 --> 00:05:44.459 and we just improvised for the camera in the streets--in Wall Street. 00:05:44.460 --> 00:05:46.020 You can't do that anymore, either. 00:05:46.029 --> 00:05:49.719 You know, so that whole playfulness is gone. 00:05:49.719 --> 00:05:53.599 It's not something I do so easily anymore. 00:06:04.760 --> 00:06:07.420 I had to write to the New York Times to say, you know, 00:06:07.430 --> 00:06:10.270 "No one's ever reviewed my work." 00:06:10.270 --> 00:06:12.560 People didn't know how to write about it. 00:06:12.569 --> 00:06:14.719 And then the guy came to every performance, 00:06:14.719 --> 00:06:18.119 but that was only at that moment, you know. 00:06:18.400 --> 00:06:22.580 Everybody knew that that moment was special, in the Sixties and Seventies. 00:06:22.589 --> 00:06:23.809 It was a special moment. 00:06:23.809 --> 00:06:26.469 I'm not saying it's better or worse, but it was just a special moment. 00:06:26.469 --> 00:06:27.760 ["Joan Jonas Dances As Organic Honey, Fictional Woman"] 00:06:27.760 --> 00:06:30.039 Now, young artists in other places are doing the same. 00:06:30.039 --> 00:06:31.589 Of course, they always will be. 00:06:31.589 --> 00:06:37.110 So maybe in Brooklyn, or the Midwest, or Chicago, 00:06:37.110 --> 00:06:40.240 that this kind of work is going on, for sure. 00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:43.620 But New York is not so exciting to use. 00:06:44.999 --> 00:06:48.839 There's not so many empty lots or places.