Joan Jonas & Eiko Otake: Drawing in Circles Installation and Performances – Danspace Project
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Joan Jonas & Eiko Otake: Drawing in Circles Installation and Performances

Photo: Jeri Coppola.

Drawing in Circles exhibition on view at Castelli Gallery:
March 14-April 1 | Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-6pm*

Castelli Gallery is located at 24 West 40th Street, 2nd Floor
(between 5th + 6th Avenues), New York, NY 10018.


Drawing in Circles Exhibition

Front Room:
Drawing in Circles, 2019-2023 (27 minutes)

Installation includes two videos projected side-by-side, intended to be viewed simultaneously.

On the Right: Joan Jonas
Camera by Joan Jonas
Edited by Joan Jonas and David Sherman
Performers: Eiko Otake, Joan Jonas

On the Left: Eiko Otake
A Body in Wyoming, 2022-23
Filming Directed by Liz Sargent
Camera by Naomi Saito
Edited by Eiko Otake

Back Room:
With the Earth at My Waistline, 2021 (28 minutes)
Joan Jonas and Eiko Otake
Commissioned by and premiered at Danspace Project
Directed by Joan Jonas
Video and Camera by Joan Jonas
Bird Video by Eiko Otake
Performed by Eiko Otake, Joan Jonas, Iris McCloughan
Assisted by Jeri Coppola and Paula Longendyke
Advisor to Joan Jonas: Sekeena Gavigan


Drawing in Circles   WHY? Performances:
Saturday, March 18, 4pm
Friday, March 24, 7pm
Saturday, March 25, 4pm

Joan Jonas’ and Eiko Otake’s collaborative project, Drawing in Circles will be on view at Castelli Gallery March 14 – April 1, 2023. This exhibition, with three accompanying live performances, marks a historic collaboration for the artists and a unique partnership between Castelli Gallery and Danspace Project.

In private conversations that started in 2018, Joan and Eiko discovered shared influences including Japanese theater, film, dance, and literature as well as an intense interest in one another’s divergent processes with regard to live performance and video. In 2019, they began experimenting in Jonas’ studio both in New York and in Nova Scotia. During the pandemic, Danspace’s director and curator Judy Hussie-Taylor invited Eiko and Joan first to a public conversation in 2020 then to collaborate in 2021 on a video With the Earth at My Waistline.

Drawing in Circles, the installation, will feature With the Earth at My Waistline and more work by each artist offering insights into their processes with regard to improvisation, collaboration, time, space, sound, object, and image. 

The performances run approximately 30 minutes and will be followed by a conversation with the artists.


*Please note: on March 18 & 25, the gallery will be open from 10am-2pm.
On March 24, the gallery will be open from 10am-5pm.

For more information, visit: castelligallery.com

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