Flock/ Mirage
Performance as part of Polyply 9: Animal, at the Center for Creative Collaboration, London, 14 April 2011
Duration: Approx 5 minutes
Materials used: antique decoy duck covered with 23 ct gold leaf and embossed with text, 3500 razorblades
Crossing Over(2010)
Sequence of Video stills from Crossing Over, Johan Thom, 2010
Crossing Over
Performance for camera, 28 May 2010
Video Loop on DVD (HD converted to DV Pal)
Duration: 4min 44 sec
For ‘Crossing Over’ the artist recited a 100 word text with his lips right above a small lit candle. In the video documentation the small flame dances gently as the artist pronounces each word, responding to the patterns of his breathing and pronunciation. The recital would stop once the flame of the candle was extinguished – something that happened quite regularly though spontaneously. Using a match the artist would then light the candle again and resume the recital. The recital continued until all the matches were finished. The resultant video work shows two full recitals of the text.
The video is available for viewing on the internet on request only. Please contact the artist by using the contact form if you would like to view it.
DECOY (2010)
Johan Thom - sequence of stills from performance as part of Tables of Thought
Date: 28 April 2010
Performance lecture as part of ‘Tables of Thought’, European Artistic Research Network, Helsinki 28 -29 April
Medium: Performance with 100 animated video stills, 100 individually engraved razorblades, ladder, speaker and gold leaf
Duration: Approx 5 minutes (excluding Q&A with Henk Slager and audience)
PHANTOM LIMB (2010)
Date: 22 March 2010
Medium: Performance with metronome, 100 individually engraved razorblades, speaker and gold leaf
Performance as part of ‘Off the shelf: performance, film, video, poetry music’ - An evening of live events staged by the Slade School of Fine Art (UCL) and presented by the Slade Word/Image Forum
Duration: Approx 10 minutes
(All photographs by Wayne Binitie)
PROSPECTER (2010)
Date: 18 February 2010
Medium: Residue of Performance lecture with metronome, text, 206 projected images
Performance resented as part of the GradCam Conference ‘Arts research: publics and purposes’, Dublin
Duration: Approx 10 minutes
- Top: Compilation of selected projected images)
Prospecter:
Person who prospects, esp. for gold, minerals etc
Specter:
[ORIGIN French, or Latin spectrum, from specere 'look']
1 An apparition, a ghost, esp. one of a terrifying nature or aspect. ▸ b In Epicurean philosophy, an image supposed to emanate from a corporeal thing.
2 fig. A haunting or terrifying presentiment. Freq. foll. by of. ▸ b A person resembling a ghost in appearance.
3 An image produced by reflection or other natural cause
Performance Description:
The work is part of a series of new projects all focused on exploring the history, mythology and impact of the discovery of gold in the ‘new world’ (Africa, America, Australia etc). For this work I wanted to pull a rabbit out of a hat, so to speak. It was a one-of performance and the work consisted of:
- A 206 word poem/ text read aloud and rhythmically timed with a wooden metronome
- 206 digital scans of rabbit bones covered in 23 ct gold & individually placed within a black hat (giving a total of one image projected per word)
- On average there are 206 bones in the human body.
During the performance each new stanza was set to a rhythm determined by the wooden metrome (40bpm, 80bpm, 120bpm respectively)
Tethers Row (2009)
Study for Incantations, 2009, (100 word poem engraved on razorblades) by Johan Thom as part of Visitor: 1-day Residencies at the UCT Irma Stern Museum. Photo by Liza Grobler
This piece of writing was first presented as a performance on 8 May 2009 at University College London. It is exactly 100 words long and each word is engraved on an ordinary stainless steel razorblade (making for a total of 100 blades). The work is read aloud during the performance connecting the mind, body and text in one fluid action.
The text functions as a form if ‘incantation’ broadly defined as a form of ‘magical singing’, a spoken ‘charm’/‘chant’ through which to raise a spirit. The text must therefore be must be spoken aloud, or ‘intoned’, in order to fulfill its purpose.
‘Afloat in Tethers Row’ is a meeting of sorts between various elements including audience, artist, object, text, voice, the value of chance and the spirit of South African poet Ingrid Jonker to whom the piece is also dedicated.
