Joan Jonas’s new performance, They Come to Us without a Word II, which premieres at The Kitchen this week, addresses itself to the ecological contemporary and the future. With gorgeous video, direct speech, evocative dance, and informal drawings of animal and insect species we share the world with, and assisted by a cadre of young performers (including children), Jonas’s mélange creates a total psychological and physical space. It made me think how strange it is that we can study — and modestly understand — other species, but can neither communicate with them, nor fully understand our relationships with them as companions, prey, agricultural machines, or victims of our indifference and cruelty. The kids onstage inherit this problem (so well described by writers like Donna Haraway and Elizabeth Kolbert) and the additional, growing terror of environmental devastation. The show made me sad, and also moved by its expression of love and wonder. NOAH DILLON
Joan Jonas, performance photo of The Come to Us without a Word II, 2015. Photo by Paula Court.
April 7 and 8 at The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street New York, 212 255 5793
print