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)

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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).