Mirror Check @ Joan Jonas. 1970.
In her performance piece Mirror Check (1970), Jonas stood nude with a small, round mirror and examined details of her body looking into the entire time, seeing ‘a succession of places unfolding in time’, while the audience watched from a distance of thirty feet. The audience, unable to see the reflected images, had to experience them vicariously through Jonas’s description and reactions. Jonas has said, « It’s the shamanistic idea – the performer goes through the actions so that the audience can experience them also. It takes you into a space that you wouldn’t otherwise be in ». The artist was greatly struck by the discrepancies between what the mirror, the camera and the viewer saw.
