‘We come from the sea’: American artist Joan Jonas on the pull of oceans and Cape Breton

In the late 1960s, the New York art scene was the site of a seismic upheaval, expanding the concept of what defines art.

The artists wanted to break barriers, move away from traditional forms, to create wildly original and daring new pieces of work. Art, they said, didn’t need to be confined to the white cube of the gallery.

One of the standouts of the contemporary art movement was Joan Jonas, an American visual artist and pioneer of video and performance art. She was fascinated with creating live performances — incorporating movement, dance, literature, props, masks and film. 

Jonas performed her early work on the streets of New York and in her Soho Loft.

“For me it was much more dynamic and interesting to enter this other world of live art,” she told IDEAS producer Mary Lynk.

Performance art gave Jonas a reason to work with people and while she says she likes to work alone sometimes, collaborating with others had a big influence on her. 

She recently has worked with the marine biologist David Gruber and the jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran. She also incorporates additional performers in her art shows.

“You need figures, you need something in front of the camera. I did a lot of performing myself. You know, I set up the camera and got in front of it and performed. I just all of a sudden found something that I really love doing.”

Jonas, now 88, has long been celebrated in Europe, including a major exhibition at London’s Tate Modern Gallery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaR6j_UBAo

But it wasn’t until 2024 that she finally received her crowning recognition in the U.S., when New York’s Museum of Modern Art organized a major retrospective of her work. 

Part of Jonas’ MoMA retrospective is a piece called Moving Off the Land II. Canadians will have an opportunity to see the work as it has been acquired by the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. 

The exhibit will tour across Canada, beginning in Cape Breton in 2025. 

‘The magic in the landscape’

Jonas’ work, Moving Off the Land II, is an ode in part to oceans, its creatures within and Cape Breton. It is also a clarion call for action against climate change.

For 55 summers, Jonas has found refuge and inspiration in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Her simple but elegant home sits high on the edge of a cliff in Inverness, overlooking a breathtaking vista with spectacular ocean sunsets. 

“I look out there every day and it’s always different… every sunset is different. The water’s a different colour,” Jonas told Lynk on her deck in late July 2024.

Jonas tells Lynk that her love for the sea is also rooted in the connection humans have to the ocean.

“We come from the sea. We don’t think about it very often, but our semicircular canals are similar to those of the fish. Our eyes are similar. We have backbones and the fish grew little legs and came out of the sea and then developed into what we are today,” she explained.

“There are different theories about how that happened. My idea is that we have a memory of that somewhere in our unconscious. We remember that we come from the sea. It’s not a memory. It’s a feeling. It’s in our DNA. I think that’s where all these stories come from and our desire to go back to the sea, our desire to swim underwater.”

Jonas used to be an avid swimmer but it’s a harder feat now given various health issues. But producer Mary Lynk took her to a beach, only known to locals, to give the celebrated artist the feeling she had been longing for all summer: the ocean washing over her body.

Jonas tells Lynk that when she came to Cape Breton with a group of artist friends and her then-partner, Richard Serra, the acclaimed sculptor, she immediately fell in love with it.

Cape Breton reminded her of her childhood in the mountains of New Hampshire. The landscape and evergreen trees with the fresh air felt familiar and welcoming.

“Up here, everybody’s in touch with the landscape in a spiritual way. The people who live here, Cape Bretoners, they love it, right? They love the landscape. And the magic in the landscape.”

The language of art

Jonas’s piece, Moving Off the Land II, is also dedicated to the late marine biologist and writer Rachel Carson. In 1962, Carson’s book, Silent Spring, exposed the hazards of the pesticide DDT and is said to have awakened a new environmental consciousness. 

“She was such an important seer of what was to come. And I remember… when the Silent Spring came out, it was such a shock and a revelation. It was radical at that time and people did not anticipate that. Of course, now everything that she said has come true.”

Jonas tells Lynk that for her creating art is involuntary. As soon as she started working as an artist, art became something she had to do.

“It’s my life… I love art. I’ve always loved art. I’ve always loved to look at it. But that’s not why I make it. You could love art and not be an artist, of course. That’s what’s good about art that inspires so many people,” she told Lynk.

Standing in a corner at parties and being terrified to talk to anybody was a reality for Jonas, she says for her art became a way to communicate.

“My work over the years gave me a language so that I could finally talk.” 

Listen to the full conversation by downloading the IDEAS podcast from your favourite app.

*This episode was produced by Mary Lynk.