Discussion Questions
2014 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
Jonn Herschend
Jonn Herschend’s short film Discussion Questions subverts the familiar motifs of contemporary media-based pedagogy through a playful intervention that invites more engaged and active viewership. Commissioned for the 2014 Whitney Biennial, the film is a text-based PowerPoint presentation that becomes a cathartic dance party. Originally screened as part of an extended program with other video works at the Biennial, Discussion Questions is initially presented as a set of questions designed to inspire audience conversation around these films. The rudimentary black and white text breaks down familiar narrative devices such as plot and setting, providing all-too-banal “instruction” on the rudiments of film analysis. The presentation, however, begins to drift off topic, morphing into its own film as the unreliable “narrator” of the presentation works through his delusional romantic issues with a co-worker at the university where he works. Suddenly, a disco beat soundtrack by Silas Hite begins to play, the screen flashing as if it were a strobe light. Hypnotized by the beat and turning of each new sentence, the viewer finds themselves in a dance party, as this sonnet spirals out of the narrator’s control. In reimaging the space of the museum/screening room/lecture hall as a makeshift dance party, Herschend not only satirizes the dry lecture style of academia: he also stakes out a place for a mode of artistic production that actively engages viewers by encouraging them to get out of their seats and onto their feet.
Jonn Herschend is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker and experimental publisher whose work explores fiction, reality and the narrative structures that we employ as a way to explain the chaos and clutter of our everyday lives. His videos, performances, installations, and photos all incorporate sterile and formally recognizable structures such as PowerPoint presentations, academic lectures, photographic evidence, infomercials, gallery exhibitions, or educational videos. He uses these structures as a means to investigate the issues of truth and confusion, and allows the messiness of reality to eventually collapse the whole piece. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Telluride Film Festival; SITE Santa Fe; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He is also the co-founder and co-editor, along with Will Rogan, of the experimental publication THE THING Quarterly.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » SLASH PARIS
ALICEGAVINSERVICES™ — La MABA — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook ALICEGAVINSERVICES™ — La MABA — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour ALICEGAVINSERVICES™ Exposition Design, graphisme, techniques mixtes Derniers Jours Alice Gavin, ALICEGAVINSERVICES™, sans titre Crédit photo : Léonard Méchineau ALICEGAVINSERVICES™ Encore 6 jours : 14 septembre → 17 décembre 2023 Cet automne, dans le cadre de sa saison dédiée au design graphique, la MABA présente, du 14 septembre au 17 décembre, une exposition consacrée à ALICEGAVINSERVICES™...
© » KADIST
Felipe Romero Beltrán
2022Dialect by Felipe Romero Beltrán is a photographic series that follows a group of immigrants who have recently crossed the strait (the maritime border between Morocco and Spain) to avoid border controls...
© » THEARTNEWSPER
Marina Abramović spreads the love in one-off performance at the Royal Academy Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Diary blog Marina Abramović spreads the love in one-off performance at the Royal Academy Against backdrop of turbulent real-world events, crowds gathered and hugged for Unconditional Love recital The Art Newspaper 11 December 2023 Share Marina Abramović performs An Invitation to Love Unconditionally in the Annenberg Courtyard at the Royal Academy of Arts, London...
© » KADIST
This place you see has no size at all… December 4, 2009 – February 7, 2010 A project curated by Jennifer Teets after her residency at Kadist Art Foundation, including new and existing works by: David Adamo, Mark Aerial Waller, Mariana Castillo Deball, Asli Cavusoglu, Alex Cecchetti, Kate Costello, France Fiction, Darius Miksys, Michael Portnoy, Tania Perez Cordova, Pietro Roccasalva, Alexander Waterman, Roger Worms Writings by Mark von Schlegell Sir/Madam, Everything I am about to tell you began with a sighting of a heron in a tree...
© » KADIST
Screening at 5pm at Little Roxie In connection to his exhibition, Evidence of Things Not Seen at KADIST , photo-conceptual artist, Hank Willis Thomas selected these films as a homage to innovative and influential creators in the medium of film whose work supports social justice as well as explores contemporary notions of identity, race, history and a national legacy of resistance...
© » KADIST
Some Time Waiting With: Olivier Babin, Robert Barry, Johanna Billing, Pierre Bismuth, Marcelline Delbecq, Jason Dodge, Ryan Gander, Isabell Heimerdinger, Jiri Kovanda, David Lamelas, Kris Martin, Jonathan Monk, Dominique Petitgand, Dan Rees, Mungo Thomson, Mario Garcia Torres, Elin Wikström, Jordan Wolfson...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
“Guards at the Taj”: The Bloody Brushstrokes of Beauty | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Photo: Singapore Repertory Theatre November 27, 2018 By Naeem Kapadia (885 words, four-minute read) First there’s its scale – with its magnificent marble dome, soaring pillars and lush surrounding gardens...
© » COLOSSAL
A legendary rivalry dukes it out one more time in Dog & Rabbit ’s animation, “ The Beatles Vs The Stones .” As iconic album covers from both rock groups come to life, the character from Voodoo Lounge rides a yellow submarine while Keith Richards, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, and Ringo Starr have a food fight...
