Artist #5

Joan Jonas
Vertical Roll

     Joan Jonas is a video artist, she sort of reminds me of Nam June Paik except she usually stays with the feminism as a subject for her works. The art piece that I am going to talk about today is going to be Vertical Roll by Joan Jonas. I must be honest this video is not aesthetically pleasing or easy to listen to, but it is truly a work of art. The video and audio within the piece all play a significant roll within the piece. Which is why you end up with a mechanical feeling while watching the piece.
     Vertical Roll is a very interesting piece indeed and from what I understand just by watching it it is suppose to be a visual of how men actually view women in society. In a few sequences Jonas is shot naked wearing two different masks. The masks have a done-up type look to them, with these fake smiles. Like many of the women in our culture, who will not leave their bedroom without "putting on their faces". The sequence where Jonas is dressed in a dancers' costume, which has a dominatrix look to it, the viewer gets to stare at various parts of her body as the camera zooms in to her torso, her lower back, chest, etc. The shots get repeated through the use of the vertical roll, emphasizing a male's fantasy of what a woman should look like. Jonas is not only wearing a skimpy outfit but she also happens to be a particularly thin woman; weight is just another issue consistently presented to women day in and day out in today's society. At the end of the tape, the viewer gets this eerie stare from Jonas herself; the face naked of any make-up as well as emotionless. The viewer gets the feeling that it is the woman finally getting to stare at and inspect the man. Only to have her head smashed by the vertical roll out of frame to just reveal a white back/empty frame.