Closing Performance

Colaborative Silverware, 2009

Press Coverage

Exhibition Brochure

Gallery Map

Exhibition Overview

Unexpected Weight Loss
August 13th-October 8th 2009
Curated by Andrew Mount

Dowd Gallery is proud to present “Unexpected Weight Loss’, a solo show by Richard Jochum. Jochum makes conceptual artworks, often in series, that are beguiling in their immediacy. Through the clever combinations of particular materials, titles, physicality and emotionality, Jochum’s work finds a way to connect with his viewers.
The variety of media employed by Jochum is matched by the heterogeneous themes and content dealt with through the work. Jochum navigates video, sculpture, photography, web-based art and participatory projects to research memory, futility, tension, collaboration, sentimentality, color, materials, scale, serial production and presence.
This show includes two works that are participatory, meaning that the public is invited to come to the gallery whenever they can to participate in the work.

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This exhibition includes a workshop, to be led by Richard Jochum, on Sept 23, 2009.

*As noted above, this exhibition will have a Closing Reception due to its summer opening date. This is in an effort to include the maximum number of faculty and students in the events of the gallery. The reception will be held in the gallery on Oct 8, 2009, from 5-7pm.

My Favorite Saying

2008, Videoblog series, net-based art project. URL: http://myfavoritesaying.blogspot.com

Every culture comprises big reservoirs of visionary sayings and proverbs. They often help us to struggle with events and ask us either to change our attitude or to find comfort in handed down knowledge and oral history. The purpose of this project is to collect them by asking numerous people to speak their favorite saying and tell the short story of it.

Collaborative Silverware (performance/installation)

"Collaborative Silverware” is an installation and performance piece for 2 performer, 1 table, 2 plates, and food (a national or regional dish would be best). The two performers have a set of silverware available to eat their food, yet the silverware is enlarged, not so much in size, but in length. The 36 inch-spoons and forks (and knives) will prove themselves to be too long to feed oneself individually. To utilize them properly, the two performers have to feed each other.
The happening (and video documentation) could take place on the day of the public opening. The installation (and video thereafter) is supposed to stay within the exhibition space for the full exhibition period; the documentary will be made available as a video shortly after the performance took place.
The silverware will be produced ahead of time and will be installed with 2 plates, 1 table with table cloth and 2 chairs from the beginning of the exhibition. The performance (incl. food such as salt potatoes, 2 performer - possibly faculty members) will take place during the exhibition.

Mama (sound and video installation)

Watch this clip

“Mama” is a short video (TRT 1’ 35’’, looped) by the Austrian media artist Richard Jochum, New York 2008.

Mama is a sound and video installation in which a man cries out for his mother. The video reverberates the visceral relationship between a mother and her son, a relationship that goes beyond the eloquence of verbal language. The video is looped, the sound however is connected to a motion sensor, thus only audible when visitors are walking by.

Equipment: Monitor with DVD-player, powered studio monitors, motion sensor.

Papa (video and sound installation)

A new video by Richard Jochum, New York, Athens 2009 in which a woman cries out for her father . Performed by Vassiliki A. Vayenou, recorded by Ioanna Myrka.

Atlas goes Superman (video projection)

Click to Play

by Richard Jochum, video performance, Athens 2009.

Atlas is the Greek God and Titan who led the rebellion against Zeus for which he was condemned to bear the heavens upon his shoulders. The story has it that he became the personification of endurance. The short video picks up on the ancient legend and continues a series of trials, tribulations, and enactments by the Austrian sculptor and media artist Richard Jochum.

Atlas goes Superman takes the theme one step further and melts the American superhero motif Superman with ancient Greek mythology, home of many potent ueberheros and crafty Gods. Where Atlas had to be turned on his head, Superman does it with a simple rotation: pushing the planet while flying midair.

The artist is digging his way through the territory of global mythology and combines European and American culture. Atlas as Superman has been performed in Athens in the ancient Agora in May 2009 and is the sequel to Atlas (2008 ongoing) and Sisyphus on Vacation which was performed 2006 in the Austrian Alps and first shown in 2007.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Atlas (photographs)

Atlas is the Greek God and Titan who led the rebellion against Zeus for which he was condemned to bear the heavens upon his shoulders. The story has it that he became the personification of endurance. The short video picks up on the ancient legend and continues a series of trials, tribulations, and enactments by the Austrian sculptor and media artist Richard Jochum. The artist is digging his way through the territory of Greek mythology. Atlas has been performed on the summit of the Austrian Alps in August 2008 among other locations. Atlas is the sequel to "Sisyphus on Vacation" which was performed 2006 and shown in 2007.

On display: 4 photographs/video stills (North, West, East, South), 20 x 24 inches, 2008-2009.

Sisyphus on Vacation (land art project, photography, video)

2006. Land art project, photographic documentation. 60 x 82 inches. Video documentary 3 min 39 sec. Movie-Link

Sisyphus On Vacation is the product of a two-week artist-in-residency in the Austrian Alps in which I carried painted gray stones totaling 692 pounds to the top of a mountain. The project imitates the old Greek figure of a blinded Sisyphus in his futile attempt to roll a boulder uphill that would only roll back down just before reaching the summit – again and again. Part of the project was to persuade 20 fellow hikers successfully to help schlepping the stones.

PaperSeries (DogEars)

PaperSeries, 2007-2009. Paper, photographs, digital fine art prints.

This series of work is based on a visual investigation: What happens when we unfold paper that we just crumbled? It will inherit visual memories and stretch-marks of what just happened to it, yet never return to its original two-dimensional state unless re-presented as a photograph. “Paper Works” are photographic prints that capture the story of these marks. Playfully going back and forth between the two- and three- dimensional space the series enacts what could be the difference between photography and sculpture, between history and memory.

History of Art (artist book)

Artist Book, 2005, 7 x 10 inches

I selected one chapter from Janson’s History of Art. Depending on which direction the reader starts to browse, a different story of art will be revealed. From the front side one would find Janson’s text but with empty spaces instead of proper names, a discourse without artists. From the rear direction the pages contain just the artists’ names, creators without context.

Bandaid Pieces

450 Bandaids, 20x24 inches, New York 2009.



BandAid-Mural. Participatory Community Project (work in progress).

Floor plan

Presented Works

Sisyphus on Vacation: 1 large photographic print, 1 video documentary (lcd-screen), 4 small prints.

Atlas Goes Superman: Video projection (projector), 2009.

Atlas: Video stills (photographs), 2008-2009.

Mama: Video installation on a monitor with audio in sync with motion detector, 2008.

Papa: Video installation on a monitor with audio in sync with motion detector, 2009.

My Favorite Saying: Video blog project with short videos on computer screen for audience to browse through and to participate.

History of Art: Artist Book: 2005-2008, presented on a pedestal-shelf.

PaperSeries/DogEars: Series of 9 photographs, printed and matted, 2008-2009

Parasite: Painted wood with cardboard letters placed as object trouvé.

Bandaids: 1 bandaid image, framed and 1 wall for public collaboration.

Collaborative Silverware. 2 sets of silverware, elongated (3 feet each) as performance and installation piece.

Artist Biography

Richard Jochum is currently a Visiting Scholar and Artist-in-Residence at Teachers College Columbia University in the Department of Arts and Humanities and the Film and Education Research Academy FERA. He has worked as a media and video artist since the late 1990s and has had numerous international exhibitions and screenings. Richard received his PhD from the University of Vienna (1997) in which he undertook a study of strategies of coping with complexity in contemporary philosophy. His MFA in sculpture and media art is from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna (2001). Richard’s art practice is accompanied by publications and research in the field of cultural theory and media art and he has been awarded several grants and prizes. He is a member of node101, a collaborative community that spreads social media technology worldwide and taught courses in media studies and technology at Columbia University (New York), at the University of Applied Arts (Vienna) and at the University of Applied Sciences (Dornbirn). One of his most recent installation - an installation of 30 light boxes as a flip book – is ready for installation beginning of June 2009 in the Arlberg railroad tunnel in Western Austria. More information can be found at http://richardjochum.net

Outline

This blogsite outlines the exhibition of Richard Jochum at DowdFineArt Gallery at SUNY Cortland. The exhibition will start Aug 6 and lasts until September 26, 2009. It will contain video work, installations, photography, objects, and include art work based on audience participation. The exhibition will be accompanied by workshops and was first announced to the local audience at a public lecture on April 2, 2009.