“I wanted to pile meaning into all those layers.” — Joan Jonas
In the May issue of frieze, writer Lynne Tillman speaks to artist Joan Jonas as she prepares for her current show at MoMA. Plus, Thomas J. Lax, Rodney McMillian and Zoé Whitley pen a survey on the iconic exhibitions at Studio Museum in Harlem and the projects that shaped them.
Conversation: Lynne Tillman and Joan Jonas
“I really saw all the forms coming together: writing, drawing, performing, music. For me, it was about different aspects uniting and informing each other in my work.” The artist speaks to Lynne Tillman about rituals, fairy tales and the interdisciplinarity which underlines her practice.
Survey: Studio Museum
“The Black radical tradition taught us that the only way out is through.” As the museum prepares to open its new building on 125th Street, the writers and curators reflect on its essential role as a site of connection, exchange and debate for Black artists.
Also featuring
Hettie Judah meets with artist Ghislaine Leung to discuss motherhood and the labour conditions around art making; Brian Dillon retraces photographer Robert Frank’s prolific career in honour of his upcoming centenary; and Gary Zhexi Zhang documents Ali Sultan Issa’s socialist Zanzibar.
Columns: Behind the Scenes
Ellen Mara de Wachter outlines the significance of absence in Kobby Adi’s practice, Carlos Valladares assesses the contentious depiction of 1960s Harlem in Shirley Clarke’s The Cool World (1968); Theodora Skipitares speaks to Franklin Melendez about the critical legacy of puppetry; Isabel Parkes pens a guide to staging a performance piece and Alastair Curtis delves into the elusive queer theatre archive to ask how it might be revived.
Finally, in honour of Donald Rodney’s upcoming exhibition at Spike Island, Bristol, Eddie Chambers responds to the artist’s 1992 work Doublethink. Plus, Lynne Tillman contributes to the series of artists’ “to-do” lists.