Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll

Musee Galliera Paris (1972/1973)

 

Joan Jonas, 1972 performance, in which she performs as “Organic Honey”. This piece includes many of Jonas’s signature devices: mirrors, masks, and the use of video for spatial, temporal, and psychological layering. In this prescient work, she relates the theatrical space of her live performance to that of electronic media, as in her reference to the “vertical roll.” Costumed in a doll’s mask and a kimono, employing props such as fans and a feathered headdress, Jonas foregrounds emblems of female identity. This image is shown to give background to the artist’s extensive career.