Douglas Crimp Interview March 2019

Interview

Douglas Crimp interviewed by Glenn Wharton, March 1, 2019.

Douglas Crimp was an American art historian, critic, and curator in the fields of postmodern theory and art, dance, film, queer, and feminist theory. He was also a committed AIDS activist. In this interview, Crimp describes his lifelong friendship with Jonas as well as his work as editor for the publication Joan Jonas: Scripts and Descriptions 1968–1982.

Transcript

• “Douglas Crimp interviewed by Glenn Wharton, March 1, 2019 (Interview Transcript).” Joan Jonas Knowledge Base, Artist Archives Initiative, 2021.

Abstract

This interview opens with Douglas Crimp discussing his first memories of Jonas in New York, which go back as early as the late 1960s. These early memories also include individuals who would become vital to Jonas’s career, such as Philip Glass, Helen Tworkov, and Richard Serra [0:55–04:11]. From there Crimp talks about Choreomania, the first performance of Jonas he saw [04:25–06:29]. Crimp also goes into detail about writing an article on Jonas in 1976 on her piece Twilight for the British magazine Studio International [06:36–08:19]. From [08:24–10:41], Crimp recalls seeing performances of Mirage and Organic Honey and these works’ use of video. The conversation shifts to some of Jonas’s collaborators, such as Babette Mangolte and Gordon Matta-Clark, as Crimp highlights how artists at that time frequently appeared in each other’s work [11:27–14:03]. This evolves into Crimp speaking about how Jonas works with her performers, including her collaborations with Jason Moran and children [14:16–16:05]. Crimp then describes his relationship with Jonas over the years [16:20–17:45]. Crimp and Wharton go on to discuss how Crimp was asked by David Ross, curator of the 1980 exhibition Joan Jonas: Performance/Video/Installation at the Berkeley University Art Museum (now UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive), to work on the publication Joan Jonas: Scripts and Descriptions 1968–1982 [17:59–20:27]. Going into more detail, Crimp describes his highly collaborative writing process with Jonas as well as the challenges of making sense of the artist’s performances for the book [22:04–28:22]. Crimp and Wharton move on to discuss issues of preservation and archiving as they relate to Jonas’s work [32:51–37:35]. From [39:23–43:15] the two consider who else could be interviewed for the Joan Jonas Knowledge Base; Crimp cites people such as Richard Serra, Thao-Nguyen Phan—who was mentored by Jonas through the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative—and Lynne Cooke. As the interview comes to an end, Crimp takes this opportunity to lament the fact that Jonas has been neglected by New York institutions and has never had a major exhibition in her own city [43:39– 46:16]. Lastly, Crimp summarizes his analysis of the concept of de-synchronization in Jonas’s work and of her anti-theatrical performing style [47:00–51:37].