[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.