Index Finger #3 (archive-link)

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IndexFinger #3 is part of a photographic video portrait series on the decisive role of a gesture, namely the index finger, throughout the history of religion, philosophy, and pop-culture. #3 is a psycho-dramatic imitation of Raphael's famous fresco "The School of Athens" depicting the major philosophers of ancient Greece. One of its central figures, Plato, serves as a template for the 3rd video portrait, showing him while holding his right arm up and pointing with his index finger towards -- most likely -- the sun as a sympol for the scholastic trinity of the good, the whole, and the truth. Raphael's fresco from 1510-11, housed in the Museum of the Vatican, is frequently a focal point of an inflamed debate among art historians over its historical value, yet it was understood to be one of the central paintings introducing neoplatonism in Italy. The video portraits were created by Richard Jochum and greatly supported by Aphrodite Desiree Navab. Altogether they constitute a tryptich installation which will be part of the group exhibition, "What's Good Must Not Necessarily Be Evil", at Kunstraum Vaduz, Liechtenstein in April/May 2007.

Index Finger #2 (archive-link)

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IndexFinger #2 is part of a photographic video portrait series on the decisive role of a gesture, namely the index finger, throughout the history of religion, philosophy, and pop-culture. #2 is a psycho-dramatic imitation of Leonarda Da Vinci's famous oil painting, Saint John the Baptist, painted between 1513-1516, housed in the Louvre, Paris. Da Vinci's paintings often depict esoteric, androgynous characters with a slight touch of an almost diabolic darkness. John the Baptist shows the saint pointing towards somebody else, the gesture of a disciple towards his master. The video portraits were created by Richard Jochum and greatly supported by Aphrodite Desiree Navab. Altogether they constitute a tryptich installation which will be part of the group exhibition, "What's Good Must Not Necessarily Be Evil", at Kunstraum Vaduz, Liechtenstein in April/May 2007.

Index Finger #1 (archive-link)

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IndexFinger #1 is part of a photographic video portrait series on the decisive role of a gesture, namely the index finger, throughout the history of religion, philosophy, and pop-culture. #1 is a psycho-dramatic imitation of Wilhelm Busch's famous 19th century graphic novel, Max and Moritz (http://www.fln.vcu.edu/mm/mmeng4.html) which still plays an essential role in German-speaking popular culture. The depicted part is based on the illustration of the fourth trick. This segment focuses on Lehrer Laempel, the heamadster of the local school who is a feared moral authority. As the story unfolds he gets blown up by the two main characters who are child pranksters, Max and Moritz. The novel itself is a cautionary tale about the destructiveness and the drama resulting from going over the edge of naughtiness. The video portraits were created by Richard Jochum and greatly supported by Aphrodite Désirée Navab. Altogether they constitute a tryptich installation which will be part of the group exhibition, "What's Good Must Not Necessarily Be Evil", at Kunstraum Vaduz, Liechtenstein in April/May 2007.

IndexFinger#3

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IndexFinger #3 is part of a photographic video portrait series on the decisive role of a gesture, namely the index finger, throughout the history of religion, philosophy, and pop-culture. #3 is a psycho-dramatic imitation of Raphael's famous fresco "The School of Athens" depicting the major philosophers of ancient Greece. One of its central figures, Plato, serves as a template for the 3rd video portrait, showing him while holding his right arm up and pointing with his index finger towards -- most likely -- the sun as a sympol for the scholastic trinity of the good, the whole, and the truth. Raphael's fresco from 1510-11, housed in the Museum of the Vatican, is frequently a focal point of an inflamed debate among art historians over its historical value, yet it was understood to be one of the central paintings introducing neoplatonism in Italy. The video portraits were created by Richard Jochum and greatly supported by Aphrodite Desiree Navab. Altogether they constitute a tryptich installation which will be part of the group exhibition, "What's Good Must Not Necessarily Be Evil", at Kunstraum Vaduz, Liechtenstein in April/May 2007.

IndexFinger#2

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IndexFinger #2 is part of a photographic video portrait series on the decisive role of a gesture, namely the index finger, throughout the history of religion, philosophy, and pop-culture. #2 is a psycho-dramatic imitation of Leonarda Da Vinci's famous oil painting, Saint John the Baptist, painted between 1513-1516, housed in the Louvre, Paris. Da Vinci's paintings often depict esoteric, androgynous characters with a slight touch of an almost diabolic darkness. John the Baptist shows the saint pointing towards somebody else, the gesture of a disciple towards his master. The video portraits were created by Richard Jochum and greatly supported by Aphrodite Desiree Navab. Altogether they constitute a tryptich installation which will be part of the group exhibition, "What's Good Must Not Necessarily Be Evil", at Kunstraum Vaduz, Liechtenstein in April/May 2007.

IndexFinger#1

Click to Play

IndexFinger #1 is part of a photographic video portrait series on the decisive role of a gesture, namely the index finger, throughout the history of religion, philosophy, and pop-culture. #1 is a psycho-dramatic imitation of Wilhelm Busch's famous 19th century graphic novel, Max and Moritz (http://www.fln.vcu.edu/mm/mmeng4.html) which still plays an essential role in German-speaking popular culture. The depicted part is based on the illustration of the fourth trick. This segment focuses on Lehrer Laempel, the heamadster of the local school who is a feared moral authority. As the story unfolds he gets blown up by the two main characters who are child pranksters, Max and Moritz. The novel itself is a cautionary tale about the destructiveness and the drama resulting from going over the edge of naughtiness. The video portraits were created by Richard Jochum and greatly supported by Aphrodite Désirée Navab. Altogether they constitute a tryptich installation which will be part of the group exhibition, "What's Good Must Not Necessarily Be Evil", at Kunstraum Vaduz, Liechtenstein in April/May 2007.

KAS - Ken Allen Studios

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Interview with Ken Allen, the founder of KAS - Ken Allen Studios, a digital production and pigment ink printing company in Brooklyn, New York.

Sisyphus On Vacation

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"Sisyphus On Vacation" is the product of a two-week artist-in-residency in the Austrian Alps in August 2007. The sculptor and media artist, Richard Jochum, carried greyish painted stones totaling 692 pounds to the top of the Bielerkopf, the closest mountain range (2389m altitude) to the site of the residency (1950m altitude). Persuasion is part of the project where friends, acquaintances, and hikers are invited to help carry some of the 61 stones uphill.

The project aims for the almost impossible rather than to maximize the possible; given that art cannot move mountains and land art, in particular, seems almost absurd in a context where the landscape itself is shaped with utmost beauty and splendor. Thus the project intertwines a tragic moment with a comical one. To haul 61 stones uphill will not stop the erosion of the Alps. To try it, nonetheless, turns the attempt at best into a good joke.

To participate in a cumbersome hauling while sweating profoundly equals a ritual purification of sorts in a world that has gone crazy and will not concede to peace at all. It imitates the old Greek figure of a blinded Sisyphus in his futile attempt to roll a boulder uphill that would only roll back down just before reaching the summit--again and again. The Alps will ultimately do the same, and instead of Zeus it will be Gravity who is enforcing the job. Subsequently, it seems slightly bizarre to paint grayish stones gray, scale them, and add numbers to them as if surveying land. As it is delicate to persuade co-hikers to participate in carrying stones manually when anything alike nowadays is done by machines.

"You are doing quite the opposite of what everybody does", was the reaction of a giggling hiker who walked down from the summit. "Everybody schleps stones down, and you are hauling them up."

We give what we have. Our doubts are our passion. Our passion is our purpose. Everything else is the lunacy of art. (Philip Roth)

"Sisyphus on Vacation becomes a communal ritual of giving back to the mountain, but what the mountain never asked for in the first place. The small mound of painted stones stands awkwardly against the towering mountain range as marker of too little and too late. There is something though in the gesture of the self-inflicted trial by the artist and his voluntary collaborators that attests to the power of communal effort and healing. One silent, solitary stone joins another and another until their voices are too loud to ignore. (Aphrodite Désirée Navab)