• Home
  • DRAWINGS
  • PERFORMANCE
  • VIDEO/INSTALLATIONS
  • OBJECTS
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT

Feeds:
Comments

2011: Flow

Two channel video installation, Video stills, FLOW 2011, DVD, Edition of 5. Two-channel video installation

I decided to roughly cut a ‘Shiva Linga’ in two in order to investigate the relationship between the masculine and the feminine.

The two separate sections of the sculpture (the ‘linga’ and the ‘yoni’) are hung from my body using fishing line. This creates a sculptural form through which the activity on the streets of the city of Gaya (India) is re-framed. The sharp incision that the fishing line produces on the body recalls the act of cutting the stone Shiva Linga in two: the line around the male neck resembles that of decapitation whereas that on the arm creates an almost yoni-like shape. Finally, honey and milk is poured onto the head and arm respectively.

The work is displayed as a two-channel video on plasma screens lying flat on the floor. The force of gravity, so readily apparent in the flow of the liquids and the hanging forms, thus seem to draw the shapes and their symbolic meanings closer to one another. Moreover, the viewer is forced to walk around the screens in order to view the work, thus adding a decidedly sculptural element to the piece.

Infinite Loop on DVD

Installation view, FLOW 2011, DVD, Edition of 5. Two channel video installation

Like Loading...

  • Archives

  • Pages

    • DRAWINGS
      • 2005-7: The Diaries of New York, Belgrade, Dhaka and Johannesburg
      • 2009: A murder of text
      • 2013: Drawings from the Animal Series
      • 2023: Things Appear and Disappear
      • 2024 (ongoing): Clay based drawings
      • 2024: Will you still be mine (Mexico)
    • PERFORMANCE
      • 2003: Bind/Ontbind Series
      • 2004-6: Outpost Series
      • 2005: Crawling (The City of Gold)
      • 2006: The Theory of Gravity
      • 2008/9: Vox Populis/ Vox Dei
      • 2008: Come in peace/ Go to pieces (2008)
      • 2008: Traffic
      • 2008: Twilight
      • 2010-12: Incantation Series
      • 2010/11: Recital
      • 2010: Biblioclast (Action with Afrikaans/Dutch Dictionary)
      • 2010: Figurehead
      • 2010: Host 1
      • 2010: ProSpecter
      • 2011: Container
      • 2011: Licked Colony
      • 2011: Thank you
      • 2013: For Linnaeus
      • 2024: nomansland
      • 2024: Will you still be mine? (Del Mar) #1
      • 2024: ‘when my feet fall asleep (they dream of having gills)’
      • Fountain (Date Withheld)
      • …other performances
    • VIDEO/INSTALLATIONS
      • 2002: The pencil test series
      • 2002: Violence and Happiness
      • 2004: The Labyrinth
      • 2005: The Minotaur Series 12
      • 2006: The Theory of Evolution
      • 2006: The Theory of Flight
      • 2007: Ascension
      • 2007: Birth of a Tyrant (2007)
      • 2007: Terms of endearment
      • 2008: Challenging Mud (After Kazuo Shiraga)
      • 2008: Outpost 4
      • 2008: The Theory of Displacement
      • 2009: Panopticon
      • 2010: blood rites/ eat your words
      • 2010: Host II
      • 2010: Illumination
      • 2010: Shellshock
      • 2011: Flow
      • 2019: Recital: Decoy
      • 2023: ‘Movement in three parts (Isandlwana)’ Johan Thom (featuring Fellay, Manganye & Binda)
      • 2023: Autoportrait
      • 2023: Hoop/Heap (featuring Sudeep Sen)
    • OBJECTS
      • 2007: Looking for Lucy
      • 2007: Molotovmammas
      • 2007: Philistine rules/ Did you know?
      • 2007: The OK Revolution
      • 2009: Vessel – Perfect Lovers
      • 2010: Gold works
      • 2010: Knobkierie
      • 2010: Recital (Lend me your ears)
      • 2010: Songbirds
      • 2011: Workhorse (with Guy Du Toit)
      • 2012: Fallen – monument for throwing…
      • 2013: The Animal Series
        • …….Collaborative large-scale etchings
        • …….Mahout (video)
        • …….Photographs
        • …….Sculptures with Guy Du Toit
      • 2014-15: Faust the African Series
      • 2016: Promises, promises…
      • 2016: Selfportrait as an ass
      • 2016: Selfportrait with skull
      • 2017: The Hanging Garden
      • 2019: Houseboat
      • 2020: Houseboat #2
      • 2023: Time after Time
      • 2024: Dwell
      • 2024: LH+RH+LHRH (Grasp)
      • 2024: RH#1 (right heel – the weight of my body in clay)
      • 2024: The ‘Grasp’ Sculpture Kit
      • 2025: LH#1 (left heel – the weight of my body in porcelain)
    • ABOUT
      • Artist statement
      • Press
      • Shortened CV
      • Interviews
        • 2003: Interview with Carine Zaayman
        • 2006: Interview with Willem Boshoff
        • 2007: Interview with David Koloane (2007)
        • 2008: Interview with Peter Machen
        • 2008: Radio Papesse Interview as part of ‘.za: Young Art From South Africa’
        • 2009: Johan Thom interviewed by Sarah Claire Picton
        • 2010: The ghosts wish to remember: Interview with Petra Zemljič
        • 2018: The Aestheticized Interview with Johan Thom (South Africa) – Kisito Assangni for ArtDependence
        • 2023: The Question of ‘Africanness’ and the Expanded Field of Sculpture (part one), Johan Thom (SA) , Olu Oguibe (US) & moderated by Carolyn Jean Martin (US)
        • 2024: Flowers, sex, labour and loss: Transcript of the keynote conversation between Willem Boshoff and Olu Oguibe & chaired by Johan Thom
      • Authored
        • 2024: Artistic research as an act of self-representation (Or why I choose to view my work as ‘research’)
        • 2025: Beauty and survival in a changing climate | Johan Thom | TEDxJohannesburg
        • David Koloane (1938–2019) – Artforum International
        • Kendell Geers at the Steven Friedman, London
        • Life intimidating art, The Diplomat, Sept/Oct 2007
        • Roger Ballen at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, 2007
        • The sleeping monster produces reasons : Diane Victor
        • Santu Mofokeng (2010)
        • The sense of fresh air (2010)
        • Taming the Trojan Horse: Disarming the Politics of Otherness in a Postcolonial (African) Context
    • CONTACT
  • Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Subscribe Subscribed
    • johanthom.com
    • Join 38 other subscribers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • johanthom.com
    • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d