She is one of those big names who has created a number of renowned works. In 1968, coming from an art history background, Joan Jonas started with performances in which she frequently used mirrors to construct various levels of space and reality. She has been working with video since 1970 using the medium partly as a mirror.
Her seminal performances and tapes investigated again and again spatial dimensions and the possibilities of transforming and displacing them. An investigation that refused to penetrate the subject. In her tapes elements of performance and video create a synthesis like in her tape “Vertical Roll": The image running on the monitor from top to bottom as if malfunctioning, keeping a constant rhythm; in tune to that, Joan Jonas is drumming a spoon on a glass plate appearing to be the camera lens. Later her face appears, then her feet, her hands, her body - moved into the frame, rolled, taken by the rhythm of the running frame and the spatial limits of the monitor screen.
Since 1976 she has also been realising video installations. But her topic is still space, enhanced by narrative elements from fairy tales, myths or sagas. Video here is usually just one of the involved elements - besides drawings, slides, tissues, light and plastic elements. The construction of her installations often recall sets for a performance - into which no performer ever enters.