Left side right side
(1972)
Medium
black and white video, sound
Measurements
7 min
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1975
© Joan Jonas. Image courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
Multidisciplinary artist Joan Jonas works across video and performance art to examine the body, new technology and recorded images. In 1972, working within New York’s avant-garde scene, she pioneered the use of video in performance art. Also made that year, the video work Left side right side shows Jonas standing next to a mirror while at the same time using a live monitor to capture her face. She repeatedly gestures to her facial features to delineate differences between the mirror and monitor images. This experimental self-portrait interrogates the nature of perception and subjectivity, offering a prescient meditation on the refraction of the self through constant depiction.