Fake Artist: Jane Ross inspired by Joan Jonas
Joan Jonas’s work from MoMA
Reanimation
2010/2012/2013
Our group chose to work on Joan Jonas. At first, we were deciding between Bruce Nauman and the Judson Dance Theater, but when we entered the room filled with Jonas’s visions, we were mesmerized by its beauty. Therefore, we decided to choose Joan Jonas as a motif for our fake artist.
Before creating our fake artist, we first researched on Joan Jonas to understand the artist’s thoughts and works. Our group divided the research into three parts — biography, career in context, and important works. I worked on the career in context part, focusing on the transitions Jonas went through in establishing her career. For the short 5 minute presentation, I focused on Jonas’s first transition, shifting from sculpture to performance art.
While researching on the original artist, we made collages for the fake artist, curator, and critic, making fake identities for each of them. I worked on making the collage for the curator, giving him the identity Jean O’Keeffe, the chief curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Collages
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- Artist – Jane Ross
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- Curator – Jean O’Keeffe
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- Critic – Cholé Arden
After finishing our collages we started to work on creating a new persona and works for the fake artist. Our group worked together in creating the basic information for the artist Jane Ross. Then we divided our works, Aldora working on the fake works, Blanca on the PPT, and I on the writing and the fake works. However, I ended up making the PPT as well.
Writings for Fake Artist
Artist Bio
Jane Ross was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1986. An emerging artist, Jane creates installations, videos, and collage based on her life and surroundings. Born from a wealthy family in Scotland, in her youth she has traveled around the world, observing the everyday lives. Between 2004 and 2009 she studied art at École Nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. After graduating, she went to travel around the world, which would later play a significant role in her art. In 2011, Ross made a successful debut with her exhibition Reformation at Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Reformation was a collection of works on Scotland’s wildlife and the industrial developments, tackling the issue of environmental pollution. After her striking debut, Ross returned to the art scene with her collection of works, Mundane, participating in a group exhibition, Existence, showcased by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Unlike her previous works, Mundane contains a simpler meaning — focusing on Ross’s personal experience — which is about trivial matters found in life.
Artist Statement
“Traveling is understanding the place’s past, present, and future. By understanding this we finally arrive at our destination.”
Life is full of riddles that are yet to be answered.
I am on a journey of my own, traveling through my life — trying to understand my past, present, and future. My works are temporary stops during my long journey.
I mark my existence and move forward. They all represent me and my life. They together complete my existence.
My works are the story of my life.
Exhibition Proposal for the MOO Museum
Exhibition Title: sérénité
Exhibition Proposal
The exhibition address the tranquility and meditation found in our lives. As a continuation from my previous exhibition, “mundane”, which addressed the trivial matters found in our daily lives that tend to be easily ignored. This exhibit, in the same context, focuses on the calmness that is found in our surroundings. The idea was mainly inspired by my personal experiences with the overall exhibit reflecting upon my life. One of the work from my exhibit, “Repetition” is a layering of videos taken from the same place which ultimately forms the shape of a rectangle. The idea of tranquility among a busy space is implied in this artwork. People are constantly moving around and making noises, but within that rectangle, there exists serenity — like being shut off from the world.
“sérénité” consists of 10 artworks which are a combination of videos and collages. The artworks will be showcased in a dark room with videos being projected from various sizes in various places. Some videos will be projected on to a wall and some videos will be displayed in screens. And the collages will be hanged in the wall with lights being shown near the piece — not directly on the piece — creating a tranquil ambiance. This intends to evoke an emotional sensation from the audiences, providing them a moment of calmness.
I like working on the writings because I could impose my personal thoughts and questions into the fake artist. Lately, I have been wondering about the meaning and purpose of life which is implied in Jane Ross’s artworks. In Ross’s artist statement it says “(My Works) They represent me and my life.” This project also being a work of my own, I feel like they also, in some ways, represent my thoughts and life. This was an insightful process as I was able to take out what I vaguely had in my head and began to physically record them. This way I was able to understand the fake artist and myself better.
Fake Works
Existing Works
Mundane
2015
Five videos on custom screens, and a crystal sculpture
Mundane, which the artist began in 2015 is a collection of videos that portray the mundane life around us. Its trivial elements draw on the artist’s life and her surroundings — mostly inspired by her youth traveling around the world. She focuses on nature that tends to be neglected. The resulting images of snowy mountains, streams, and animals express a feeling of tranquillity which the artist felt hard to find in the busy 21st century.
Centerpiece with crystal sculpture represents tranquility nature brings to her life. In the video, Ross is moving her hands and the crystals are reflected upon the surface of the screen. The crystals represent the beauty and joy of nature having the shape of water drops. As they are reflected on the screen with the hands. Ross intends to show the joy, beauty, and calmness nature brings to her life.
Article on Mundane in Aesthetica (an international contemporary art and culture magazine)
I made an article rather than a press release because I wanted to try something different and make something more related to graphic design. So I decided to create a page from an art magazine which introduced Jane Ross’s artwork Mundane. This was also an interesting process as I made something related to my major. Though I am not 100% content with the design, trying this sort of work that would build up to forming my career – though it’s only baby steps – was definetely interesting.
New Fake Works
Repetition
2017
20”x11.25”
The videos are overlapped to form a rectangular shape which creates a feeling of being pulled into a whole. Ross’s ongoing idea of focusing on daily life is implied in the artwork.
Up, Down, Back, Forth
2017
40”x22.5”
“What is life? Where are we going?” Ross’s thought on life is reflected in this video. The multiple elevators refer to both complicated life and Ross’s view on living life as it flows.
Eternal
2017
20”x11.25”
In the interview, Ross mentioned that, “ the tranquility that the fog brings to people is even more effective in the busy city.”
Transcendental 1
2018
24”x18”
The inspiration of the collection “Transcendental” came from Ross’s journey to Greece. When she saw the colors of the buildings and sea in Greece, she had a strong willingness to put them together and that results in this artwork.
Transcendental 2
2018
24”x18”
This is also a part of the collection “Transcendental”, which is also created in Greece. Ross hopes that the colors she used in this piece will bring the calmness to the audience like the trip to Greece brought to her.
Harmony
2015
30”x16.9”
The candle is in a device of balance, which brings calmness to the audience. The balance makes the device to spin evenly in peace.
Emergence
2015
30”x16.9”
No matter how dark the environment the candle is in, the candle is still lit and gives out the light, indicating that the peaceful feature of the candle makes the impact of the surrendering ignorable.
“Strike A Pose!”
2014
25”x11.25”
The dance poses that the dancers showed to create a single second of equilibrium on the stage. In between all the intense dancing movements, a moment of stillness could be unlimitedly enlarged.
Ma Mére (My Mother)
2014
12”x6.75”
To portray the beauty of her mother, Ross created a video about her mother who is a ballerina. This video shows how her mother influenced Ross in the world of Art.
Sur les Pointes (On the Pointes)
2015
45”x25.3”
Ross made this video which recalls her memory of practicing Ballet when she was young. Even though Ballet is not the main focus in her life now, it is still a way for her to relax. Ross is an artist with diverse experience, and the world of dance had a huge influence on her artworks.
These are the fake works we worked on. I made the first two works – Repetition and Up, Down, Back, Forth – and the remaining eight works were made by Aldora. As I was making the fake works, as I did with the writings, I kept referring to my personal ideas and reflected them on the works. I especially like Up, Down, Back, Forth. I like it because I always felt like I don’t know where my life is heading towards to. At a very young age, I thought of art as my future career, but it changed as I grew up and changed once more again. I feel like other people know what they want to achieve with their life and can picture their future, but I can’t. It’s all a blur and I don’t know which direction I am heading towards. This is what inspired me into making Up, Down, Back, Forth. Am I going up or down? or am I walking diagonally? What is life and Where am I heading towards?
The overall process of working on this project was fun and hard. It was fun and interesting creating a completely different persona in some ways which reflected my thoughts and also working on the form of art – video – which was unfamiliar to me. But, as this was a group project there were many difficulties. Agreeing on ideas and different expectations on the quality of the works was a challenge for me. Some were intrigued and some were ignorant and unamused by this project. This was hard for me because I wanted to have a perfect result, but all of the people had different expectations and coming to an agreement was a challenge. We divided works, based on each others strength Aldora was assigned the part of making the fake works, Blanca the ppt, and I the writings – Artist Bio, Artist Statement, Fake ideas for existing works, Proposal, and List of Artworks – and few of the fake works. However, our plan didn’t work out as we aspected and I ended up making and reorganizing the ppt as well. If someone asks whether the group work was a success, then I will say No, but Yes. It wasn’t that much of a success because only some people worked hard. However, I will say that it was successful because it was a lesson for all of us. Though this may sound like an excuse, I tried to consider everybody’s work ethic and enthusiasm and we tried to contact and keep in touch with each other. However, if one is not caring then there is nothing we can do. We are not that person’s mother or father and we can’t force them to care about something one has no interest in. We have our own works to do and we can’t singly focus on that person and nurture and teach as one would do to a baby. This is college and one should have the decency to take care of their own life. What others can do is hold out a hand for help. It is that person’s choice to grasp them or not. So through this project, I learned that there are things I can do and I can’t do, there are just some boundaries that need to be kept. Therefore, I see this group work as a success even though the outcome may not a perfect unity of teammates because I believe we all learned something and will be able to grow.
