Description
Joan Jonas, Volcano Film, 1976. Film (16mm) transferred to video, black and white, silent. Component in the performance Mirage (1976) and the multimedia installation Mirage (1976/1994/2005).
Jonas ordered this film from a stock film house and projected it as part of her first performance of Mirage (1976) at Anthology Film Archives and in subsequent performances. During the performance, the film is projected on the screen above the stage and Jonas “runs in place, and shakes her entire body violently for the duration of the film.” The black-and-white stock film includes footage of swaying palm trees, a stream of flowing lava, fire, crumbling buildings, and a violently erupting volcano spewing smoke and ash into the air. Jonas includes the film as a component in the installation Mirage (1976/1994/2005).
—KP
Bibliographic References
Jonas, Joan. “Mirage.” In In the Shadow a Shadow: The Work of Joan Jonas, edited by Joan Simon and Joan Jonas, 216–17. New York: Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2015.
Jonas, Joan. “Mirage [Script].” In In the Shadow a Shadow: The Work of Joan Jonas, edited by Joan Simon and Joan Jonas, 218–27. New York: Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2015.
Jonas, Joan. “Mirage (1976).” In Joan Jonas: Performance Video Installation 1968–2000, edited by Johann Karl Schmidt, 124–33. Stuttgart: Galerie der Stadt Stuttgart; Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2001.
“Video: Volcano Film. Performance 7: Mirage by Joan Jonas.” The Museum of Modern Art, New York.