Description
Joan Jonas, Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy / Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll, 1972/1994. Multimedia installation with four video components: Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy (1972), Vertical Roll (1972), Richard Serra’s Anxious Automation (1971), and Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll (1973–99). Collection Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy / Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll (1972/1994) was first shown in 1994 as part of Jonas’s exhibition Joan Jonas: Works 1968–1994, after which the Stedelijk Museum acquired the work. For a detailed account of the evolution of the installation, see the Stedelijk Museum Comprehensive Collection Report, Installation Instructions, and Research Project.
Bibliographic References
Jonas, Joan. “Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy (1972/1994) Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll (1972/1994)” [and floor plan]. In Joan Jonas: Works 1968–1994, edited by Dorine Mignot, 42–47, 117. Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1994.
“Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy/ Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll.” Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
For further reading, see Organic Honey Bibliography.
Stedelijk Museum Collection Research Project
Excerpt from Stedelijk Museum Comprehensive Collection Report, Installation Instructions, and Research Project for Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy / Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll (1972/1994). Courtesy Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
Introduction
Stedelijk Museum Research Project
Joan Jonas’s Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy / Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll (1972/1994) and Revolted by the thought of known places…Sweeney Astray (1994)
2006/2007
By Anne Mink (2007) and Sandra Weerdenburg/Rebecca Timmermans (2012).
History of acquisition
In the early 1990s, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam conceived the plan to dedicate a retrospective exhibition to Jonas’s oeuvre. Since the re-enactment of the works was not an option, it was decided to convert the film and photo recordings, the props and everything else that was handed down from the performances into installations in collaboration with the artist. The installations attempted to give as complete a picture as possible of the form and content of the performances, as well as to evoke the atmosphere in which the works were created. Eventually Jonas made six installations for Joan Jonas: Works 1968–1994, in which the material from performances from her entire oeuvre was arranged according to different themes. Because many props had been lost over the years, she had copied various objects or had them copied or searched for replacement objects. After the exhibition, two installations were purchased by the Stedelijk Museum. The first work concerns Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy / Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll (1972/1994), which resulted from the video performance series of the same name that Jonas made in the early 1970s. The second installation is Revolted by the thought of known places….Sweeney Astray (1994).
Variable installations (situation 1994 until 2006)
The format developed by Jonas and the Stedelijk Museum for converting performances into installations served as an example for all retrospective exhibitions devoted to the artist that followed in Stuttgart, Berlin, and New York, among others. For each exhibition, Jonas herself reassembled the installations in the available space. Sometimes she removed elements from it and sometimes she added elements as she deemed it necessary to do justice to the work. In other words: every time the installations were set up, they looked different. As a result, it became unclear at a certain point in time what exactly the installations consisted of or should consist of. Ten years after the first installation of the two Stedelijk works, the records contained ten different inventory lists. This caused problems with the preservation of the work: for example, objects could easily be lost. Also much information about the original and current condition of the works was missing, as well as the meaning of the material and the influence of its condition on the meaning. Also both installations contained (out) dated audio visual equipment which raised questions about the authenticity and importance of the original elements. Moreover, there was uncertainty about the way the works were to be presented in the future. If each time Jonas prepares the works herself and, in addition, changes the composition, to what extent is her presence an essential element of these installations? What to do if, for whatever reason, she is no longer able to install her work?
The research project
At the beginning of 2006 a research project was launched with the aim of answering as many as possible questions regarding the conservation and installation of the two works. Joan Jonas was so kind to come to Amsterdam and be part of the project, in doing so providing a huge amount of priceless information. The project was led by Sandra Weerdenburg (Head of the Conservation Department) in close cooperation with Dorine Mignot (former Curator Time-Based Media). Anne Mink, a student of Art History at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, carried out the research, which came to form a large part of her master thesis. Geurt Imanse (Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture), Jan van Adrichem (Head of Documentation and Research), Gert Hoogeveen (Head Audio Visual Department), Maurice Rummens (Member of the Research Staff), Rebecca Timmermans (Sculpture Conservator), Netta Krumperman (Coordinating Conservator Applied Arts & Design) and Saskia Stokhof (Collection Registration), all from the Stedelijk Museum, were closely involved in the implementation. In the summer of 2006, Anne Mink described all the separate objects in the installations in the storage of the Stedelijk Museum (see appendix IV Installation instructions: 1. inventory list). In addition to a formal and technical description, a material specification and condition report were made of each installation element in collaboration with conservators of the museum (Please see appendix II for an example of the registration form). Also the place and relationships of the objects in the installations was a point of attention, later to be added upon by Joan Jonas.
Pilot installation
In the last ten days of January 2007, both installations were, under the guidance of Joan Jonas, installed in the temporary exhibition space of the Stedelijk Museum, SMCS (Please see appendix III snapshots pilot 2007) The installations were both extensively documented, covering not only installation aspects, but also discussing issues for future conservation, especially when they might have an effect on the presentation. Not all objects could be installed at this time because the condition did not allow it. For these objects a suitable replacement was used. The installations were not accessible for the public during the research period.
Interviews
Anne Mink, Dorine Mignot, and Sandra Weerdenburg spoke extensively with Jonas about her work and method during the pilot presentation, as well as (future) conservation of the separate parts. During those interviews, there was also special attention for future installation in different- sized spaces; trying to define the margins, the do’s and don’ts, for those variable circumstances. These interviews were filmed by Moniem Ibrahim from the audio visual department of the museum. The transcripts of these interviews are included in appendix V.
Final result
In 2012 the Stedelijk Museum reopened after a long period of renovation and extension. At this occasion we had the opportunity to install Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy / Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll in a space especially designed for the work. The outcome of the earlier research project was used to install the work in the best way possible (appendix IV Installation instructions: 2 Report of the installation in the exhibition 2012 for details and photos). Joan Jonas was present and very happy with the result. Consequently, this version can be used as an example for future installments. However it is important to realize that Joan Jonas always has to be informed and asked for advice for every new presentation. But if she cannot be present, we now have valid guideline to install the work in a responsible way, respecting the artist’s wishes.
Exhibitions and Installation Views
Works 1968–1994 (1994) Installation Views
- Joan Jonas: Works 1968–1994, curated by Dorine Mignot, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, May 31–June 19, 1994. (Installation Views)
Works in Place (2012) Installation Views
Joan Jonas, Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy / Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll, 1972/1994. Multimedia installation with four video components: Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy (1972), Vertical Roll (1972), Richard Serra’s Anxious Automation (1971), and Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll (1973–99). Collection Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Installation views, Works in Place, curated by Ann Goldstein, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, September 23–November 4, 2012.
For additional exhibitions, see Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy / Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll, 1972/1994 (installation).
Installation Drawing
- Joan Jonas, diagram for Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy / Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll (1972/1994), c. 1994. Drawing sent via fax machine; photocopy. Stedelijk Museum Archives, Amsterdam. (Installation Drawing)
Floor Plans
- Joan Jonas: Works 1968–1994, curated by Dorine Mignot, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, May 31–June 19, 1994. (Working Floor Plans) (Final Floor Plans)
- Joan Jonas: Five Works 1976–2003, curated by Valerie Smith, Queens Museum, New York, December 14–March 28, 2003. (Floor Plans)
Interviews
- Joan Jonas on Organic Honey, October 2018
- Joan Jonas on Organic Honey Installations, December 2020
- Joan Jonas on Joan Jonas: Works 1968–1994, September 2019
- Interview with Karen Archey (art critic and curator of contemporary art for time-based Media at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam), April 2020
- Interview with Joan Simon (independent curator and writer based in Paris), January 2021
- Interview with Rebecca Timmermans and Sandra Weerdenburg (respectively the Conservator of Modern Art, and the Sculpture Conservator and Head of Conservation at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam), September 2020