- Artist/Maker:
- Joan Jonas
- Bio:
- American, b. 1936
- Title:
- My New Theater III: In the Shadow a Shadow
- Portfolio/Series:
- My New Theater
- Date:
- 1999
- Medium:
- Single-channel video, color, sound (approximately 10 min.), custom-designed wooden theater box, screen, media player, wooden trestle, speakers, and bench
- Dimensions:
- 55 × 30 1/2 × 94 in. (139.7 × 77.5 × 238.8 cm)
- Credit Line:
- Gift of The Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation
- Accession Number:
- 2022-72
Not On View
Joan Jonas was one of the earliest and most innovative artists to work with new media. She began experimenting with performance in 1968 and video in 1970. The portable “theater,” within which Jonas presents this and other works from her series My New Theater, allowed her to perform for the camera rather than for a live audience. The scenery and camera setups were carefully constructed to align with the screen nested inside the theater box. As in all of Jonas’s works, performance, structure, and content are inextricable. Inspirations and themes with which the artist has engaged throughout her career appear here, including Japanese Butoh dance, the notion of a double, the presence of an animal as helper or guide, and the latent poetry in simple materials and movements.
Information may change as a result of ongoing research.