Installation view of “Joan Jonas: Good Night Good Morning,” March 17–July 6, 2024, The Museum of Modern Art (photo by Jonathan Dorado © Joan Jonas / Artists Rights Society)
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS) and the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) have announced the joint acquisition of a major work by Joan Jonas.
The installation, entitled Moving Off the Land II, had its North American debut at the Museum of Modern Art this past March, as part of the exhibition Joan Jonas: Good Night Good Morning.
It will remain on view in New York until July 6.
Based in New York, Jonas began her career in the city’s art scene of the 1960s, where she was a pioneer in performance and video work. Although Manhattan is her home base, she has also lived part-time in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia since 1970.
“From her home for more than 50 years, Jonas has found inspiration in the environment that surrounds her: the woods, the Cape Breton coastline, Nova Scotian folklore and the community of Inverness,” says Art Gallery of Nova Scotia CEO Sara Moore Fillmore.
“Jonas is celebrated around the world and Nova Scotians deserve to share a part of this distinguished artist’s remarkable work. Moving Off the Land II is a lush, immersive work of art that offers a host of timely programming opportunities: connections through conversations about the ocean, climate, biodiversity, and the power of small communities in venues, and with audiences, throughout the province and across the country.”
“Moving Off the Land II presents the ocean as a threatened ecosystem, a repository of mythology, and a site for transformational encounters with animal life,” according to the news release.
Originally a lecture and demonstration, the work was adapted into a performance and installation. It draws on Jonas’ time by the ocean in Cape Breton and her time working with marine biologist David Gruber. A multimedia presentation, it includes video, theatre structures, print, cast glass and Murano glass mirrors.
It will have its Canadian premiere in summer 2025 in Cape Breton and then will be on view at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia before being made available to institutions across the country.
The acquisition has been made possible with money from the Sobey Foundation and the DR Sobey Foundation, as well as support from Canadian philanthropist Michael Nesbitt.
Source: National Gallery of Canada
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