The sense of something gone missing – lost, absent or misplaced – is a recurring theme in my work. The void may be a physical void, indicated by a visual absence or hole, or implied by a tenuous connection. The idea that our perceptions and experiences of the world are piecemeal – like a puzzle, parts are incomplete, fractured, or missing – interests me.
My work ranges from discrete handmade objects, digital photomontage, printmaking, kinetic sculpture and installation to theatrical productions, social practice, and community engaged projects. I frequently seek to provide context for community and personal reflections on loss, absence, and bereavement through active play and participation. Over the past decades, I have investigated loss, healing, and building connections with major bodies of work created independently and in collaboration with other artists and the community.
Artist Bio:
Joan is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, compassionate activist, and death acceptance advocate whose work frequently provides context for community and personal reflections on loss, absence, and bereavement through active play and participation. Since 1987, Joan has performed and exhibited in the US and abroad. Recent projects and venues include eco monopolies: a Commons Artist Project, MCA Chicago (2018); Take Care, Weinberg/Newton Gallery (2017); and Ill at Ease: Dis-ease in Art, University of Buffalo (2017).
In 2000, Joan founded Compassionate Action Enterprises with Lisa Marie Kaftori to create art and interaction geared toward ecofeminism, environmental ethics, social, political, and cultural activism. Their filmic verse from there to here, from then to now extends CAE’s ongoing jasmine series into physical meanderings and cinematic wanderings and was presented in S.T.E.P., Saunter Trek Escort Parade at Flux Factory and Queens Museum, NY.
For information, exhibition and new project inquiries, and collaborations, please complete the form below.