Portfolio Richard Jochum

#1 Sculptures / Objects / Installations

2007-11-03T14:20:00.001-07:00

“Threshold as Swing”. 2005. Wood, rope, hooks. 35 x 12 x 1 inches.
Reconstructed threshold hanging from the ceiling on two ropes; symbolizing the space that lies in between two rooms, i.e. the room in between. As a swing, the threshold never stays fixed; it toggles back and forth, to and fro.

#2 Artist's Books

2007-11-03T14:19:00.002-07:00

“History of Art”. 2005. Artist book. 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.

Hausverstand. The Ultimate Guidebook (New York 2009) is an artist’s book, which consists of a carefully designed cover. The project introduces a hard-to-translate Austrian expression into English: Hausverstand, a word that describes basic common sense.

Hausverstand is a plea to trust our own intuition instead of other people’s advice. By visually resembling the many self-help books out on the market with their alluring promise of easy change, the book encourages us to think for ourselves: The Ultimate Guidebook.

#3 Participatory Performance Spaces

2007-11-03T14:19:00.001-07:00

“dis-positiv”. 2000-2003. Performance project with plexi glass sculpture 750 square feet.
dis-positiv is an international exhibition project in which not works of art is on display but several art theorists, critics and curators. As embodiments of their own discourse they are facing the public while physically being separated by a glass structure. dis-positiv reflects our interest in the developments and strategies of contemporary art practice.

#4 Relational Art

2007-11-03T14:18:00.001-07:00

“Selfportrait as a Group”. 2000-2006 (ongoing). Photographic series. 30 x 40 inches.
Artists have been making self-portraits for centuries, emphasizing the self as an individual entity. My series aims to highlight the self as a communal being who is interconnected. The yearly picture to be taken changes and grows as do the people who have left a place in my life.

#5 Video Performances

2007-11-03T14:17:00.001-07:00

“Halt2007”. Videoperformance and photographic images. 2001-2007. DVD-PAL and digital print 18 x 24 inches.
Artist saws himself off the branch he sits on. He falls and lands on the same bough. Photographic image and video performance series. Sounds: birds twittering, sawing noises, and branch cracking.

Richard Jochum, Video Performance (Video Still). Austrian Alps 2008.

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 and will be shown at an exhibition at Columbia University in fall 2008. The photograph shown serves as placeholder for the video loop. Atlas is the sequel to "Sisyphus on Vacation" which was performed 2006 and shown in 2007.

#6 Land Art

2007-11-03T14:16:00.001-07:00

“Sisyphus on Vacation”. 2006. Land art project, photographic documentation. 50 x 70 inches.
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.

#7 Reenactments

2007-11-03T14:15:00.001-07:00

“IndexFinger#1-3”. 2007. Video portraits, installation with 3 LCD-Screens. 20 x 44 inches.
Index Finger #1-3 is a photographic video portrait series on the decisive role of a gesture, the index finger, throughout the history of religion, philosophy, and pop-culture. The 30 sec video portraits are looped and constitute a tryptich installation which became part of the group exhibition, "What's Good Must Not Necessarily Be Evil", at Kunstraum Vaduz, Liechtenstein.

The videos on display can be seen at http://katzenroehrl.blogspot.com/2007/02/indexfinger1.html, http://katzenroehrl.blogspot.com/2007/02/indexfinger2.html, and http://katzenroehrl.blogspot.com/2007/02/indexfinger3.html

#8 Public Art and Communal Sculpture

2007-11-03T14:13:00.001-07:00

“The Rosary / Sibha as a Communal Sculpture”. 2007. Installation with painted pottery and steel chains. 99 beads 12 inches each, 120 feet overall-length.
This installation was built for the rooftop of the American University in Cairo in a big collective effort with students, faculty, and the public. The installation uses symbols from different religions (99 beads as in Islam; cross-shaped cut-outs as used by the Copts) hereby serving as a bridge between the East and the West.

#9 Postminimalist Photography

2007-11-03T14:06:00.001-07:00

Series “PaperWorks” by Richard Jochum. 2007. Paper, photographs, digital fine art prints, 16 x 20 inches.

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.

#10 Sensor-based Sound- and Video-Installation

2007-11-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

Watch this clip

“Mama” is a short video (TRT 1’ 35’’, looped) by the Austrian media artist Richard Jochum, New York 2008.

“When my father turned 60, I asked my siblings to produce a book for him as a gift. We entitled it “Our Father” and I wrote a few chapters. Being able to do so, surprised me. I was not aware of how easily words came to me about my father; some of the texts were a bit dada, others theatrical, some more analytical and although I praised him to the skies, there was criticism, too. When my mother a few years later turned 60 I could not produce anything like that at all. The relationship that I had with her, proved to be beyond words. I could not capture it, could not verbally describe it, felt way too embedded in a relationship that was “bloody” to start with: coming out of her womb.

The video that I created goes back to this observation of a visceral relationship with my mother beyond the grip of a verbal structure and language. I never was able to produce this somewhat very personal piece of video until an open call for submission intrigued me to set the idea into tape. The short movie is made to be looped, because addressing a mother and calling out for her will always escort us and keep being an indelible impulse.
P.S. If the video is shown in a space, I envision it to be displayed on an old tv-screen which is placed at the height of an imagined crib and would stand in the corner of a room. Crying out for a mother would then turn into what it was planned to be: an installation piece and not only a video."

Artist Statement

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(1) Although trained as a sculptor I see myself as a media artist. That means that my work is not limited to a single material, it includes all sorts of media. In a recent exhibition for instance I was showing 25 new installations: photography, objects, drawings, and video.

(2) I believe in the power of art. I think art continually has to find new images for the time we live in. For the conditions and issues we deal with: existentially, politically, physically, and globally. Searching such images is what I am aiming for.

(3) Going back and forth between knowing and doing feeds what we ultimately call culture. It is important to me to be involved in art practice from both a theoretical and practical stance. I usually get most inspired by artwork that comes from a balance between aesthetic form and conceptual content.

(4) My artwork is often based on some sort of humor. I like it when serious things come with a wink. It makes it easier to deal with, to digest, and to further construct.

(5) I do believe in an intriguing encounter between art producers and the public. To embrace education is a rewarding way to expand our creativity. Audiences can make us learn better, and see things we would not have known of. I understand both, intelligence and creativity to be profoundly social.

Richard Jochum, New York 2005-2007

Short Biography

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Richard Jochum is a Visiting Scholar and Artist in Residence at Columbia University. He works as a media artist since the late 1990s setting up exhibitions all over the world. Being an Austrian citizen Richard received his MA in philosophy from the University of Innsbruck, and his PhD from the University of Vienna dealing with strategies of coping with complexity in contemporary philosophy. He got his MFA in sculpture and media art from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna before he moved first to Berlin and later to New York. Richard’s art practice is accompanied by lectures in the field of contemporary art practice and cultural theory. He has been awarded several grants and prizes. One of his most recent installation - an oversized prayer necklace as a communal sculpture – is exhibited on the roof top of the American University in Cairo, March – 2007. More information can be found at http://richardjochum.net