Lunar Rabbit
Public Art
Lunar Rabbit
Lunar Rabbit was a collaboration between Joan Jonas and students from Clinton School for Writers and Artist on a project exploring the myth of a selfless rabbit whose image adorns the moon. Drawing from Jonas's study in Japan, they delved into the myth's symbolism, creating sculptures, videos, and performances. Using Japanese paper for costumes and crafting masks, they enacted the tale along the Hudson River. Jonas transformed the footage into a circular projection on a moon suspended from the ceiling, complemented by a fairytale-like sculptural installation.
When
January to May, 2011
Where
Hudson River Park, New York, NY.
Exhibited at the The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, PA and at The Armory Show‘s VIP SoHo night at Luceplan, Soho, New York.
Joan Jonas, Lunar Rabbit, 2011.
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About the artist
Joan Jonas, Lunar Rabbit, video installation at Luceplan in Soho, 2012.
Lunar Rabbit evolved from a project Joan Jonas initially developed with a young dancer as a video installation at the Center for Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu, Japan, in 2010. For the New York project, she worked with public middle school students in Manhattan to interpret and perform the story of the rabbit in the moon. In a folktale, a young rabbit is rewarded for his selflessness and generosity towards an old beggar with a permanent safe haven, his image eternally imprinted on the moon. Through discussion and drawing, the students and Jonas explored the myth’s symbolism, themes, and cross-cultural connections, as surprisingly similar versions of the tale exist in the Japanese and Aztec traditions.
The students and the artist wrote a screenplay and the students decided which of the five characters they would portray in the filmed performance. Together they also created costumes in Japanese paper, crafted papier-mâché masks, and constructed a variety of props to be used. After rehearsals and more discussion, the students enacted the tale of the charitable rabbit in a wooded area along the Hudson River in Chelsea, Manhattan, which Jonas filmed.
For the subsequent installation/exhibition, held at Luceplan storefront in Soho, Jonas cropped the footage into a circular image to be projected on a moon hanging from the ceiling, and conceived a fairytale-like sculptural video installation incorporating materials that included an artificial lawn, cut-out free-standing rabbits as well as rabbit drawings blown up on the walls.
Joan Jonas
Joan Jonas was born in 1936 in New York. A pioneer of performance and video art, Jonas works in video, installation, sculpture, and drawing, often collaborating with musicians and dancers to realize improvisational works that are equally at home in the museum gallery and on the theatrical stage. Drawing on mythic stories from various cultures, Jonas invests texts from the past with the politics of the present.
By wearing masks in some works, and drawing while performing on stage in others, she disrupts the conventions of theatrical storytelling to emphasize potent symbols and critical self-awareness. From masquerading in disguise before the camera to turning mirrors on the audience, she turns doubling and reflection into metaphors for the tenuous divide between subjective and objective vision, and the loss of fixed identities.
Joan Jonas received a BA from Mount Holyoke College (1958), attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1958-61), and received an MFA from Columbia University (1965). She is a professor emerita at MIT.
Among her many honors are awards from Anonymous Was A Woman (1998); the Rockefeller Foundation (1990); American Film Institute’s Maya Deren Award for Video (1989); Guggenheim Foundation (1976); and the National Endowment for the Arts (1974). Jonas has had major exhibitions at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern, Stockholm (2013); Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2013); Documenta (2002, 2013); Performa (2013); The Kitchen (2012); Bergen Kunsthall (2011); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2010); Venice Biennale (2009); Dia:Beacon (2006); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (2006); Jeu de Paume (2005); Renaissance Society (2004); Tate Modern (2004); Queens Museum of Art (2003); Taipei Biennial (2002); and Dia Center for the Arts (2000), among others. Joan Jonas lives and works in New York and Nova Scotia, Canada.
Joan Jonas, Lunar Rabbit , 2011. Video still featuring students from the Clinton School.
Joan Jonas, Lunar Rabbit , 2011. Video still featuring students from the Clinton School.
Joan Jonas, Lunar Rabbit , 2011. Video still featuring students from the Clinton School.
Joan Jonas, Lunar Rabbit , 2011. Video still featuring students from the Clinton School.
Joan Jonas, Lunar Rabbit, 2011. Behind the scenes shooting video with students from The Clinton School.
Joan Jonas, Lunar Rabbit, 2011. Behind the scenes shooting video with students from The Clinton School.
Students from Clinton School for Writers and Artists in a workshop with Joan Jonas as part of Lunar Rabbit, 2011.
Joan Jonas and students from the Clinton School, Lunar Rabbit , 2011.
Students from Clinton School for Writers and Artists in a workshop with Joan Jonas as part of Lunar Rabbit, 2011.
Mask making workshops with students from Clinton School for Writers and Artists as part of Joan Jonas', Lunar Rabbit, 2011.
Mask making workshops with students from Clinton School for Writers and Artists as part of Joan Jonas', Lunar Rabbit, 2011.
Joan Jonas and students from the Clinton School, Lunar Rabbit , 2011.
Joan Jonas and students from the Clinton School, Lunar Rabbit , 2011.
Joan Jonas, Lunar Rabbit, video installation at Luceplan in Soho, 2012.
Joan Jonas, Lunar Rabbit, video installation at Luceplan in Soho, 2012.
Joan Jonas, Lunar Rabbit, video installation at Luceplan in Soho, 2012.
Joan Jonas, Lunar Rabbit, video installation at Luceplan in Soho, 2012.
Joan Jonas, Lunar Rabbit, video installation at Luceplan in Soho, 2012.
Joan Jonas, Lunar Rabbit, video installation at Luceplan in Soho, 2012.
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Supporters and Partners
Joan Jonas and students from the Clinton School, Lunar Rabbit , 2011.
Joan Jonas at the Clinton Middle School
Over eight weeks, the students and Jonas explored the myth’s symbolism and themes in the Aztec tradition through discussion, drawing, papier-mâché, and ultimately the creation of a sculpture and video work of art. Together, they created costumes in Japanese paper, crafted papier-mache’ masks, and constructed a variety of props to be used for the performance. Finally, the students enacted the tale of the self-less rabbit in a wooded area along the Hudson River.
Lunar Rabbit was produced with the support of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation. Luce Plan was a presenting partner for this project.
