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Teachable Moments

2011-04-25T18:27:00.001-04:00

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Teachable Moments is a series of podcasts, short movies, slide shows, animations, and stories representing moments in which we experienced learning in surprising or
unexpected ways.

Originated as a class assignment for a studio course in art education, Teachable Moments continues to record unique and unpredicted incidents of learning.

This episode with Pau Atela, Professor of Mathematiks who talks about his newly found interest in drawing, marks the beginning of this series.

A Project by Richard Jochum
New York 2011
Creative Commons Licence

Formats available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4)

Dust, Dirt, and Scratches

2011-03-15T10:43:00.001-04:00

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[This is a preview version of a movie which has been produced for an exhibition.] Dust, Dirt, and Scratches is a movie about the obsession of cleaning up.It shows the process of digitally retouching an image which is full of stains and scratches in Photoshop. The cursor turns into a wiping cloth and broom. Guided by an invisible hand, it touches the image in sections to remove stains till the spotty image becomes plain. - Recorded as a screen-cast, the movie serves as a tutorial as well as a demonstration of compulsive behavior. If longing for perfection is inherent to the arts - hereby creating beautiful pictures at times - it's also a futile obsession. For a video artist who is used to the format of movies under five minutes, Richard Jochum's screen-cast is remarkably lengthy (42 min). However, the goal is not to have the audience watch the entire movie rather than make the viewer realize that there will always one more spot that needs cleaning. And if the superficial stains are cleared, the image will still show hidden, low-lying stains.

Formats available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4)

Daniel Falk

2010-11-18T18:40:00.002-05:00

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http://myfavoritesaying.blogspot.com

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Collaborative Silverware

2010-07-27T10:29:00.002-04:00

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Welded silverware, installation & performance, 2009-2010. Collaborative Silverware is an installation and performance piece for 2 performer, 1 table, 2 plates, elongated silverware and food. The 36 inch-spoons, forks and knives will prove themselves to be too long to feed oneself individually; the two performers will have to feed each other. Conceived and directed by Richard Jochum; performed by Jessica Sugerman and William Penrose.

Formats available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4), Flash Video (.flv)

Tomatoes

2010-06-04T18:30:00.003-04:00

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"Tomatoes" is a 1 min animation by Richard Jochum produced with Cooliris, a Firefox add-on. The video shows what is basically a Google-search for images on tomatoes. The result is a reflection on contemporary visual culture as it presents itself through the graphical interface of contemporary social media. "Visual Culture Tomatoes". New York / World Wide Web, 2010.

Matthew Amster

2010-05-27T19:57:00.001-04:00

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Eliot Eskin

2010-05-27T18:46:00.001-04:00

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I Can't Believe It's Not Art

2009-10-23T04:36:00.002-04:00

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The question, whether an object, image or artifact is art or not, cannot be decided either by one single object, image or artifact, let alone by an individual. Art is after all a practice rather than a product, a verb rather than a noun, but more importantly a social agreement, a title thats been decreed and continuously awarded by specific communities, particular institutions, or a group of representatives, placeholders of the world of culture and the industry of art. Nonetheless, theres a common drive in public conversations to raise questions about the legitimacy of certain objects and negotiate them in regard of their status as to what level something is art or not, which I find both, compulsively obsessive and strikingly playful.

I cant believe its not art refers to the popular childhood game with daisies in which we fervently try to decide through a ritual of petal picking whether somebodys feelings are in or against our favor. She loves me, she loves me not cannot be decided by wishful thinking unless it is whimsical to begin with. However, the ritual follows a function: it marks our courting and tries to raise our odds the more so as performed in front of the adored.

I cant believe its not butter is the name of a well-known American brand. To extend the phrase into the field of arts expands the play with daisies into the realm of words. Branding, it shows, is not just a challenging task for companies, but artists as well, see Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol, Naomi Klein, etc.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Danielle Jordan

2009-09-23T16:50:00.001-04:00

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Vaughn C. Randall

2009-08-19T16:02:00.001-04:00

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Tracy McEvilly

2009-08-19T16:00:00.001-04:00

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Tara Evans

2009-08-19T15:52:00.001-04:00

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Peter Muehlbauer

2009-08-19T15:09:00.001-04:00

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Diane Acton

2009-08-19T14:28:00.001-04:00

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Gavin Kenwon

2009-08-19T12:58:00.001-04:00

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Heather Powell

2009-08-19T00:32:00.001-04:00

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James Withers

2009-08-18T20:06:00.001-04:00

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James Withers

2009-08-17T11:44:00.001-04:00

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Atlas goes Superman

2009-07-04T19:29:00.007-04:00

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by Richard Jochum, video performance, Athens 2009.

Atlas is the Greek God and Titan who led the rebellion against Zeus for which he was condemned to bear the heavens upon his shoulders. The story has it that he became the personification of endurance. The short video picks up on the ancient legend and continues a series of trials, tribulations, and enactments by the Austrian sculptor and media artist Richard Jochum.

Atlas goes Superman takes the theme one step further and melts the American superhero motif Superman with ancient Greek mythology, home of many potent ueberheros and crafty Gods. Where Atlas had to be turned on his head, Superman does it with a simple rotation: pushing the planet while flying midair.

The artist is digging his way through the territory of global mythology and combines European and American culture. Atlas as Superman has been performed in Athens in the ancient Agora in May 2009 and is the sequel to Atlas (2008 ongoing) and Sisyphus on Vacation which was performed 2006 in the Austrian Alps and first shown in 2007.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

"With Kind Regards From the Late Emperor"

2009-06-14T08:49:00.003-04:00

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Installation with 30 light boxes as a flip book celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Arlberg railroad tunnel.

Location: Blisadonnatunnel between Langen am Arlberg and Kloesterle / Austria
The installation can only be seen from the train.

Richard Jochum shows a short video with a staged portrait of the old emperor of Austria, Franz Josef. The emperor looks friendly towards the eye of the beholder/camera, while kindly lifting his hat and greeting the viewer with a smile ever so gently. The video lasts for 2 seconds only and has been split up into 30 single digital frames which have been printed on translucent foil and put into 30 light boxes. The installation works like a flip book nicely placed to be seen by the travelers from the window of the passing train.

One could imagine the viewers to start a conversation such as: Wasn't this just the old emperor? And those who have missed the short moment of display answering: Whom? Or: Which one? In the process of time people will have heard from the project and the travelers will be waiting for the friendly greeting fromt he windows of their train.

Franz Josef was co-responsible for one of the biggest tunnel construction projects of the 19th century, the Arlberg railroad tunnel with more than 14 kilometer in length. Hence, it made sense to pick his image for an art project playfully celebrating the anniversary. On a deeper level, the project plays with old Austrian sentiments: as a nation that is still proud of its history, the great Empire, yet knowing, that it's grandness has become part of the past. The brief flare-up of "history", i.e. an image from the past as it is presented by the light box installation makes up exerience a ride on a ghost train in a luna park: aiming to say, history is something that flashes us from the past.
What is the celebration of an anniversary turns hereby into an artistic intervention with a pinch of humor: with kind regards fromt the late emperor.

Concept: Richard Jochum
Emperor Franz Josef: Lucien Samaha

More information: http://arlbergbahn.blogspot.com

Formats available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4), Flash Video (.flv)

Holy Cow

2009-04-25T14:16:00.001-04:00

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Atlas

2009-01-25T17:06:00.001-05:00

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Richard Jochum, 2008. Loop. Austrian Alps.

Atlas is the Greek God and Titan who led the rebellion against Zeus for which he was condemned to bear the heavens upon his shoulders. The story has it that he became the personification of endurance. The short video picks up on the ancient legend and continues a series of trials, tribulations, and enactments by the Austrian sculptor and media artist Richard Jochum. The artist is digging his way through the territory of Greek mythology. Atlas has been performed on the summit of the Austrian Alps in August 2008 among other locations. The photograph shown serves as placeholder for the video loop. Atlas is the sequel to "Sisyphus on Vacation" which was performed 2006 and shown in 2007

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Pawel Wojtasik

2008-11-28T12:00:00.001-05:00

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Aphrodite Desiree Navab

2008-11-28T11:59:00.001-05:00

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Robert Cunningham

2008-11-28T11:58:00.001-05:00

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Razia Sadik

2008-11-28T11:56:00.001-05:00

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Catherine Spaeth

2008-11-16T20:22:00.001-05:00

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Philip Law

2008-11-16T20:21:00.001-05:00

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Marty Spence

2008-11-16T19:30:00.001-05:00

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Olga Hubard

2008-11-16T19:29:00.001-05:00

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Marta D'as Pinheiro Cabral

2008-11-16T19:27:00.001-05:00

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David Solomita

2008-11-16T19:24:00.001-05:00

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Tamar Efrat

2008-11-16T19:22:00.001-05:00

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Margaret Hitchcock

2008-11-16T19:21:00.001-05:00

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Joseph del Pesco

2008-11-16T19:19:00.001-05:00

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Andrew Mount

2008-11-16T19:17:00.001-05:00

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Jim Elniski

2008-11-16T19:16:00.001-05:00

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Andrea Domesle

2008-11-16T19:13:00.001-05:00

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Graeme Sullivan

2008-11-11T13:10:00.001-05:00

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Thomas McKean

2008-11-11T12:54:00.001-05:00

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Heather Lewis

2008-11-11T12:44:00.001-05:00

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Christopher Link

2008-11-11T12:40:00.001-05:00

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Angelo Miranda

2008-11-11T12:07:00.001-05:00

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Mary Sullivan

2008-11-11T11:56:00.001-05:00

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John Broughton

2008-11-11T11:54:00.001-05:00

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Alyson Vogel

2008-11-11T11:45:00.001-05:00

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Sten Evenhouse

2008-11-11T11:40:00.001-05:00

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Guido Baumgartner

2008-11-11T11:27:00.001-05:00

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Ronald Roach

2008-11-11T11:18:00.001-05:00

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Judith Burton

2008-11-11T09:07:00.001-05:00

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Ben Walters

2008-11-11T08:58:00.002-05:00

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Every culture comprises big reservoirs of visionary sayings and proverbs. They often help us to struggle with events that ask us either to change our attitude or to find comfort in handed down knowledge and oral history. The purpose of this project is to collect them by asking 30 people to speak their favorite saying and tell the short story of it: when and how the phrase first entered his/her life. The result will be a series of short video blog entries which are posted on the internet and which are accessible to the exhibition audience. Sharing these gems of personal wisdom and landscapes of human resilience with each other will teach us about each others developmental whereabouts; and it will also bring cultural flavor into an often quite impersonal web.

Mama

2008-09-01T17:27:00.004-04:00

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“Mama” is a short video (TRT 1’ 35’’, looped) by the Austrian media artist Richard Jochum, New York 2008.

“When my father turned 60, I asked my siblings to produce a book for him as a gift. We entitled it “Our Father” and I wrote a few chapters. Being able to do so, surprised me. I was not aware of how easily words came to me about my father; some of the texts were a bit dada, others theatrical, some more analytical and although I praised him to the skies, there was criticism, too. When my mother a few years later turned 60 I could not produce anything like that at all. The relationship that I had with her, proved to be beyond words. I could not capture it, could not verbally describe it, felt way too embedded in a relationship that was “bloody” to start with: coming out of her womb.

The video that I created goes back to this observation of a visceral relationship with my mother beyond the grip of a verbal structure and language. I never was able to produce this somewhat very personal piece of video until an open call for submission intrigued me to set the idea into tape. The short movie is made to be looped, because addressing a mother and calling out for her will always escort us and keep being an indelible impulse.

P.S. If the video is shown in a space, I envision it to be displayed on an old tv-screen which is placed at the height of an imagined crib and would stand in the corner of a room. Crying out for a mother would then turn into what it was planned to be: an installation piece and not only a video."

Atlas

2008-07-30T12:13:00.002-04:00

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Atlas is the Greek God and Titan who led the rebellion against Zeus for which he was condemned to bear the heavens upon his shoulders. The story has it that he became the personification of endurance. The short video picks up on the ancient legend and continues a series of trials, tribulations, and enactments by the Austrian sculptor and media artist Richard Jochum. The artist is digging his way through the territory of Greek mythology. Atlas will be performed on the summit of the Austrian Alps in August 2008 and shown at an exhibition at Columbia University in fall 2008. The video shown serves as a first draft for a project in progress. Atlas is the sequel to "Sisyphus on Vacation" which was performed 2006 and shown in 2007.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Selfportrait with Jesus

2008-07-07T11:45:00.001-04:00

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I was about to become a Jesuit in 1985, but then I did not. It seemed not the right thing for me to do at that time; the order supported its member's personal development and intelligence at a cost to their social skills and intelligence. I felt it would be more beneficial for me to improve my social abilities than to reinforce the idiosyncrasies and quirkiness of a premature high-schooler.

It turned out to be the right decision, and instead of becoming a highly supported individualist I became a highly educated, politically-engaged artist. Religion did not play that big a role in my life. But that changed through the arts, as my artistic practice began to draw from the resources of my childhood upbringing.
While religion returned to be a topic in my life, the public stance towards religion changed; religious beliefs after 9/11 became a major signifier in defining cultural differences very much to my dismay. My observation might admittely be specific to the country where I reside the United States where I find many great achievements of secularism, such as the segregation between church and state, slowly taken back by increasing fundamentalism.

Secularism, though, is a major achievement that protects societies from unnecessary heat since religious beliefs unfold an ability to incense quickly when they become societal. Selfportrait with Jesus reflects my take on religion as I see it today. If anything, religion should serve as a source of intrapersonal resilience and stability, reaching out vertically rather than horizontally, fostering spiritual growth rather than societal uproar.

Depicting myself in a 360 degree rotation with Jesus hanging from the cross shows doubtlessly some signs of tragic, but as the world is depicted upside down, there might be humor, too. The video track is dubbed with a field recording from the main post office in Manhattan (by opodo.org); I thought the busyness of hectic customers makes up with the self-indulgence of contemplation.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Fog Dance

2008-03-28T11:42:00.001-04:00

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Aphrodite Desiree Navab and Richard Jochum dancing in an Antony Gormley installation.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

The Rosary | Sibha as a Communal Sculpture

2008-01-19T15:57:00.001-05:00

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Installation: The rosary / sibha as a communal sculpture. American University Cairo, New Falaki Building, Egypt. The installation was built in a collective effort on March 8, 2007 and is on temporary view on the roof top of the New Falaki Building.

Visiting Professor of AUC Richard Jochum invites students, faculty, and the public to become part of a communal sculpture: a huge, 40 meter large communal prayer necklace.

"The sculpture of the magnified rosary beads changes the scale and sector of the original. From the private meditation of an individual holding her rosary, the sculpture becomes a public one inviting communal contemplation. By moving it from the private to the public sector, the rosary becomes an object for discussion and debate. At the same time, however, the change in scale from hand-held to larger-than-life transforms the giant rosary into a subject commanding a presence within the same space of its viewers. Its uncanny resemblance to a chain recalls both the positive and negative connotations of the many types of chains in our world: from the chains that are used for prisoners to the chain that links memory itself. A chain that connects one religion to the next in the significance of prayer, could also be a chain that prevents connections to be made. Painted sky-blue and being a site-specific installation on the roof, the rosary beads seem to bring a piece of the sky down to sit on the rooftop for conversation. As both an object and subject of inquiry, the sculpture re-presents the locals relation to the global, inviting discussions of the ways in which we are linked together and implicated, and ways that we could forge better relations."

More Information: http://richardjochum.net

Snow II

2008-01-10T13:59:00.001-05:00

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Snow II is a video performance by Richard Jochum, Austria/New York 2008 and shows how the artist rolling a ball of snow until he gets exhausted. The ball is growing and continues to grow after help arrives. But there is a limit to it; soon the group of helper is bigger than the ball thus making progress impossible. Most of the video has no sound; as if snow pacified the noise; only at the end and when a tractor arrives to assist the human crowd can we hear the humming of a machine.

The short video (TRT 00:02:41) deals with the relationship between human labor and natur, complexity, ritualized trying, and Sisyphus. "One must imagine Sisyphus happy" (A. Camus); even more so in winter wonderland where the stones to be rolled consist of snow and the laboring effort is shared by a group.

With many thanks to: Robert Jochum, Irmgard Wehinger, Magdalena Wehinger, Mathias Wehinger, Fidel Jochum, Irma Jochum, Aphrodite Desiree Navab, Werner Walser, Evi Walser.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Train passing thru (Lumiere)

2007-10-13T16:48:00.001-04:00

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Cell Portraits

2007-10-02T12:32:00.000-04:00

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"Cell Portraits" gives an impression of the daily work of a cell biologist and offers a view behind usually closed laboratory doors.

In search for molecules regulating the cell, biologists use visual tools such as microscopy to study where those molecules are and what they do.

The short movie (4'18'') documents the procedure of creating a microscopic image of cells. - These "micrographs" bear scientific information; but they also entail aesthetic qualities that attract public attention.

A project by Jan Schmoranzer and Richard Jochum. Columbia University, New York 2005-2007

More information: http://cellportraits.blogspot.com

Cellportraits (old version)

2007-09-12T09:15:00.000-04:00

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This video was revised and updated on Oct 2, 2007. - More information: http://cellportraits.blogspot.com

To And From

2007-08-29T07:36:00.001-04:00

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This is the documentary video (8'40'') of an installation project at the Kinetic Arts and Sciences Center, New York, done by Richard Jochum with many thanks to Elaine Summers, Gudrun Diermayr, Ken Allen, Marlene Nichols, Jan Schmoranzer, Jeep Rosenberg, Anna Aloisia Moser, Brian Hennessey, Peisung Tsai, Heike Rebholz, Sebastien Sanz de Santamaria, Jean Barbaris, Marion Boultbee, Bill Costanzo, Meg Chang, Sam Kedem et al.

The presented works on view are mixed media installations in order to create kinetic spaces. Doing so To and From refers to the creative work of Elaine Summers and her Kinetic Arts and Sciences Center who is dedicated to choreography, dance performances, visual and intermedia art. In greater detail the following pieces will be on display:

Five jumping balls from a toy shop with grips to hold on and for visitors usage while being video taped. Four of them are in a bright yellow, one is in a luminous green. All will show dark green silk screen imprints with the lettering esc and are filled with helium - too heavy to fly but surprisingly light when it comes to jumping. The so called "escape objects" are inspired by working with the computer keyboard and the esc-key in particular - a key that promises immediate exit from the active application. Concerning the bouncing balls this promise comes with a wink: There is no such thing as escape and every attempt to do so is doomed to fail. Or have you ever seen exhibition visitors escaping on bouncing balls through the streets of the city of New York? Sizes: 23 resp. 19 inches.

"The threshold as a swing"is a reconstructed wooden threshold hanging from the ceiling two inches above ground and that way turning into a swing. It symbolizes the space that lies in between two rooms, i.e. the room in between. Who steps on it, will be at the cusp of it trembling and fluctuating. The threshold does not decide between the one and the other area, it stands on both.
And yet being a swing the threshold never stays steady; it is torn, toggling back and forth, swaying "to and from"; till the momentum comes to a crises: identifying the crisis and as such exemplifying a situation that has to be overstepped: by carrying the bride into the next stage of commitment for instance.
The piece recalls a figure from medieval times: the hagazusa (haga = thing; zusa = fence), i.e. the person sitting on the top of a fence and therefore marking the fine (yet fictitious) line between wood and village, between wilderness and civilization, jeopardizing the established rules and certainty of clear cut facts and solid knowledge. Personifying the perils of unknown territory the hagazusas were quickly defamed as witches or hags, indicted and burnt in the flames of inquisition. Size: 32 x 11 x 1 inches; hanging on two 13 feet ropes.

The image of the crisis finds its expression in a further piece: In a pair of dice hanging from the ceiling as if just tossed and frozen in the middle of a "cast". The result of the throw is not clear. Will it be a double six? Or just one and one? Variation of Caesar's saying: The die is cast. The die is NOT cast! Alea NON iacta est! Art is continuously challenged by finding new expressions of our time being. Size: 16 x 16 x 16 inches each.

"Plaster Room. All Waltz!" is the title of the production of an accident that happened to take place at the Kuenstlerhaus Passage Gallery in Vienna in 1998. A video documentary taped and cut by the Austrian media artist Wolfgang Neipl and photographs show how visitors get plastered by medical staff on freely selected parts of their body. Subsequently people dance to a modern version of electronic Waltz music.

"Installation with music for two dancers" is a new piece showing a pair of cd-players with earplugs hanging from a wall and ready to get picked by those visitors who want to dance to the music that is supposed to play different tracks. As the rest of the audience won't hear any music at all, the dancing turns into a performance of movements within space, a riddle about the dancers interaction and potential synchronicity.

To and From took place from Oct 19 - 26, 2005

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Falling

2007-07-16T16:56:00.001-04:00

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I was always very much interested in the metaphor of falling, loosing control, sawing oneself off the branch one sits on, moving from one space into an-other or just swaying back and forth. My artistic work seems like an investigations into these metaphors. "Falling" is a piece that came to me while simultanously hiking in the Austrian Alps and working on a competition about re:emergency. I was sliding down a snow field and imagined how it would feel just to let go and: fall. The short video documents the result.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Halt 2007

2007-07-06T12:19:00.001-04:00

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Artist Richard Jochum saws himself off the branch he sits on and falls. Sound: sawing noises, and branch cracking. New York 2007. Continuation of a performance series which started in Vienna 2001.

Reading List

2007-06-26T10:26:00.001-04:00

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Recommended reading for videoblogging course

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Snow

2007-05-31T17:08:00.001-04:00

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A movie by Richard Jochum. New York 2007

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Desert

2007-05-31T16:36:00.001-04:00

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Row! Row! Sispyhus!

2007-05-21T10:21:00.000-04:00

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Rowing a boat that obviously does not move. A video project by Richard Jochum, El Fayoum/New York 2007. Part of a series dealing with futility, complexity, ritualized trying, and Sisyphus. "One must imagine Sisphyus happy" (A. Camus) Even more so in the middle of the desert where water is hard to be found.

BTW Rowing without moving is an experience that happened to me in 1987: I drifted off shore on the Lake of Kinneret, Israel, rowing for 3 hours without noticing any result. The Lake is known - to those who know - to be fed by underground springs which - together with the wind - create a movement from North to South. I had no clue, neither the friend who shared my despair.

Sisyphus in Winter Wonderland

2007-05-19T20:50:00.000-04:00

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Rolling a snow ball until it gets too heavy to be moved by a single person. A video performance by Richard Jochum, New York 2007. Part of a series dealing with futility, complexity, ritualized trying, and Sisyphus. "One must imagine Sisphyus happy" (A. Camus) Even more so in winter wonderland where the rolling stones are out of snow.

Index Finger #3 (archive-link)

2007-02-26T08:39:00.000-05:00

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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)

2007-02-26T08:36:00.001-05:00

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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)

2007-02-26T08:18:00.000-05:00

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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 DÃƒÂ©sirÃƒÂ©e 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

2007-02-21T23:08:00.000-05:00

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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

2007-02-21T22:29:00.000-05:00

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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

2007-02-21T21:56:00.000-05:00

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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.

KAS - Ken Allen Studios

2007-02-19T22:45:00.000-05:00

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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

2007-02-04T10:15:00.001-05:00

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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)

Waldansichten

2006-11-07T12:05:00.000-05:00

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this is a one minute sample movie from a video project where I took photographic pictures one shot a day from the rear window of my sister's house towards the forest. It is a piece about time, nature, and change. Very peaceful, no sound.

Videoblogging Course Fall 2006

2006-11-03T10:56:00.000-05:00

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Art is me, Art is you

2006-09-28T19:11:00.003-04:00

Art is me, Art is you is a street art event that has taken place in the streets of New York on Sunday May 28, 2006. A small group of artists from Philadelphia and New York moved through the street with their own art attached to their bodies. This art gesture emphasized why art is important in the daily lives of artists and why art needs to be within view of the public.

Event Schedule
12 noon – 2.00pm: Art event began on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) and artists proceeded along 5th Avenue, arriving at the Guggenheim Museum on 89th Street, and then returning to the MET.
3.30pm – 5.00pm: Art event began at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) on 53rd Street and artists proceeded along 5th Avenue, 72nd Street and Madison Ave, arriving at the Whitney Museum of America Art on 75th Street.

Participating Artists included
Yikwon Peter Kim, Josh Friedman, Vincent Housten, Richard Jochum,
Désirée Navab, Siyoung Rhie, Graeme Sullivan

Selfportrait as a Group #5

2006-09-19T23:50:00.000-04:00

Artists have been making self-portraits for centuries, emphasizing the self as an individual entity. My series, “Selfportrait as a Group,” follows this tradition but pays tribute to the others who are involved in the making of the self. Be they friends, family or colleagues they influence any portrait that I may make of my developing self. The yearly picture to be taken changes and grows as do the people who have left a place in my life. Thus it is not a static portrait of an individual person but a moving image of a group that continues to influence each other. This series aims to highlight the self as a communal being who is interconnected. The video portrays the many factors and people who are involved in the making of three isolated photographic moments.

I'm a man, I'm a woman! #9

2006-01-01T09:48:00.000-05:00

Rudolf is not so sure about the question.
Series of short cuts about people's self-representation, sex & gender.

I'm a man, I'm a woman! #8

2006-01-01T09:20:00.000-05:00

Bill believes to be a man.
Series of short cuts about people's self-representation, sex & gender.

I'm a man, I'm a woman! #7

2006-01-01T09:17:00.000-05:00

Barbara hopes to be a woman.
Series of short cuts about people's self-representation, sex & gender.

I'm a man, I'm a woman! #6

2005-12-31T20:13:00.000-05:00

Anja would rather want to be a man.
Series of short cuts about people's self-representation, sex & gender.

I'm a man! I'm a woman! #3

2005-05-07T15:05:00.000-04:00

Valerie intends not to give an answer to the question.
Series of short cuts about people's self-representation, sex & gender.

I'm a man! I'm a woman! #2

2005-05-07T13:51:00.000-04:00

Sebastien says, he's a man that knows how to be a woman.
Series of short cuts about people's self-representation, sex & gender.

I'm a man! I'm a woman! #5

2005-05-07T13:48:00.000-04:00

Romina says, she's a woman.
Series of short cuts about people's self-representation, sex & gender.

I'm a man! I'm a woman! #1

2005-05-07T13:42:00.000-04:00

Frank says, he's not a woman.
Series of short cuts about people's self-representation, sex & gender.

I'm a man! I'm a woman! #4

2005-05-04T20:04:00.000-04:00

Jay says, he's not a woman.
Series of short cuts about people's self-representation, sex & gender.

Halt installation sample

2005-04-17T14:06:00.000-04:00

Sample from a performance in the Vienna woods where I climbed a tree and cut off the branch I was sitting on. Free falling! Edited to a loop.