Joan+Jonas+'Vertical+Roll'+Analysis+-+Ian+Shieh

Ian Shieh New Media Digital Art
 * Writing Assignment 1 **

** Vertical Roll ** ** By Joan Jonas ** 1972     Single-channel video, black and white, sound 19:38 minutes Joan Jonas uses and manipulates the attributes of the medium video to create a work that presents fragmentation, distortion and the reframing of the female identity and sexuality. Jonas uses a interruptive signal to create this “vertical roll” where the picture frame repeatedly rolls from top to bottom. This vertical rolling fragments the images of Jonas’ in the video creating a rapid effect. The fragmentation effect is enhanced with the inclusion of a monotonous clanking or smacking which is synchronized to the rhythmic rolling of the tape. The viewer sees images of a female body, either zoomed in or gradually losing focus. The female in Jonas’ work is in fact herself performing. In the performance she is wearing sexually provocative clothes including images of nudity. The rolling images focus mainly on close-up shots of the female body parts. The close-ups essentially make the viewer stare at her body parts. The suggestiveness of the images sets up the viewer to be a male as if presenting to the male what most men want to see in a woman today. The element of viewing women paired with the vertical rolling of the image expresses the unstable identity of today’s woman. In the full 20 minutes, Jonas is seen wearing two different masks, a headdress and a costume. The clothing and the female accessories Jonas chooses to wear and present in her work symbolize the figurative mask and costume women wear when going out in public. The background and setting of the video is a black background, which gives the viewer a sense of limited physical space. It is as though women or in this case Jonas is trapped in a closed space with little room to move. The way this video is presented in the relatively small square of the screen of a boxed TV also complements this element. Joan Jonas’ //Vertical Roll// creates a metaphorical reflection into women’s identity and the way they are viewed.