The Rosary | Sibha as a Communal Sculpture

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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

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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.

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Train passing thru (Lumiere)

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Cell Portraits

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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)

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

To And From

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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

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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

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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

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Recommended reading for videoblogging course

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Snow

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A movie by Richard Jochum. New York 2007

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Desert

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Row! Row! Sispyhus!

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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.