Joan Jonas x Tate Modern

It’s the silver lining our ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ society is our increasing esteem for experience, proving there’s a limit to the power of material things. It’s here that art imitates life – an age in which a painting can command a record-breaking $450m bid at auction, and yet, the magic of the image is not enough; at ground level, people are turning their backs on the stagnant artwork in favour of the more immersive genre of performance. One figure never neglected that nerve: Joan Jonas, synonymous with feverish downtown scene of a seedy ‘60s New York, pioneered contemporary performance art as we know it, carving out a fresh space in the field to be filled by a female-dominated collective. This spring, London’s Tate Modern will honour Jonas’ astounding contribution over five decades with an extensive immersive exhibition, the largest showcase of the artist’s work to stand in the UK.

It’s both a testament to the radical flair of the artist, and an illustration of how stubbornly stale the cultural landscape has proved to be, that Jonas’ early works still read remarkably provocative in the 21st century, often charged with feminist overtones as she explores identity via her masked sexualised alter ego, Organic Honey. The visceral nature of her films continues to characterise her current practice, with works like Reanimation and Stream or River, Flight or Pattern knotted with the politics of climate change and animal extinction. Having originally trained as a sculptor, objects play an important part in the narrative of this career, whether props for installation or moving image, or inspirational items from the artist’s personal collection, presented in parallel with fully-formed works to make for a characterful survey. In addition to this significant retrospective, Joan Jonas will be the subject of this year’s BMW Tate Live Exhibition – a ten day programme of innovative live performances in the Tanks, with the artist herself taking to the stage to perform some of her most famous works, including Mirror Pieces, alongside those of close collaborators. That’s the art of living in the moment.