Joan Jonas: Drawings | ART21 "Exclusive"

[Joan Jonas: Drawings]

[SOUND OF DOG TOY SQUEAKING]

I don't think that you could ever really

capture what it's like for an artist to be
alone

working on their work in the studio;

I don't think that's possible.

It's always a set up, you know?

I mean, I got dressed in a certain way,

and I wanted it to look nice.

I cleared up the mess.

You know...

It's just a very different situation.

I'm not interested in having my private moments
truthfully represented--

at all, because I don't think it's possible.

I do this kind of work a lot--

in this case, experimenting with how these
drawings

are just going to come out if I do them very
fast,

with this particular tool and this ink.

So, it's almost accidental if they turn out
or not.

["Reanimation" (2012)]

When I perform for the audience, I'm in another
mode--

another world.

There's two categories of drawings:

drawings I do in performances,

and drawings I do just in my studio.

Drawing is like practicing the piano;

because the first ones that I do often don't
come out,

so I have to practice and do it over and over again

until I get what I like.

So I have an owl that I got in Nova Scotia.

And so I started drawing this owl.

I'm interested in the mask-like quality of
an owl's face.

But, it's not in my work;

it's just part of my drawing archive.

["Celestial Excursions" (2003)]

Robert Ashley asked me to choreograph

a movement and visual element for his opera,
"Celestial Excursions".

[Robert Ashley, Composer]

So one of the things I did

was make a lot of drawings like this,

very fast.

And they're kind of approaching a cartoon-like
method.

["In the Shadow a Shadow" (1999)]

I did, for many years, make drawings of my
dog, Xena.

I drew her a lot because she interested me;

she was very strange looking.

I haven't started drawing Ozu yet.

Poodles are difficult to draw because they
all look alike.

I began to draw my dog with the "Organic Honey"
piece.

["Organic Honey's Vertical Role" (1973)]

I was telling stories referring to myth,

["Melancholia" (2005)]

and for me, the dog is in the same way

that a horse is involved with a myth as being
a helper--

or a cat.

So for me, the dog is the animal helper.

So that was the way I justified having the
dog.

But then I just simply because interested
in

drawing this image over and over again,

and making portraits.

If you make a portrait of somebody,

you have something about their character,
of course.

So, I'm interested in getting that quality
into the other drawings,

otherwise I don't think they're very interesting.