I Can't Believe It's Not Art

Short video, 1 min 26 sec, New York 2009. Movie-Link / Backup-Link 

I can't believe it's not art is a short video in which a performer is picking petals from a daisy referencing to the old childhood game: She loves me, she loves me not. By expanding the popular diversion into the field of the arts, the video adds humor to an often dreadfully serious debate about whether a certain object, image or artifact is art or not. The outcome is based on an understanding of art as a process rather than a product, a social construction rather than an isolated entity by itself.

Mama

2008, Sound with motion sensor and video installation, 1 min 35, DVD. Movie-Link

Mama is a video and sound installation in which a man cries out for his mother. The video reverberates the visceral relationship between a mother and her son, a relationship that goes beyond the eloquence of verbal language. The video is looped, the sound however is connected to a motion sensor, thus only audible when visitors are walking by.

Halt II

2007, Videoperformance and photographic images. 2001-2007. DVD and digital print 18 x 24 inches. Movie-Link

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.

Snow II

2008, Video performance, 2 min 41, DVD. Movie-Link

Snow II shows how the artist is rolling a ball of snow until he gets exhausted. The ball is growing and continues to grow after help arrives. But there is a limit to it; soon the group of helper is bigger than the ball thus making progress impossible.

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

My Favorite Saying

2008, Videoblog series, net-based art project. URL: http://myfavoritesaying.blogspot.com

Every culture comprises big reservoirs of visionary sayings and proverbs. They often help us to struggle with events and ask us either to change our attitude or to find comfort in handed down knowledge and oral history. The purpose of this project is to collect them by asking numerous people to speak their favorite saying and tell the short story of it.

Sisyphus on Vacation

2006. Land art project, photograph, 60 x 82 inches. Video documentary 3 min 39 sec. Movie-Link

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. Part of the project was to persuade 20 fellow hikers successfully to help schlepping the stones.

Atlas

2008. Video Performance (Video Still) and Photographic Series. Austrian Alps. Video-Link

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 among other locations. 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.

man/woman

2006, High definition movie, 10 min 02, DVD

Man/Woman is a project in which I asked about 30 people, who where on their walk through Central Park New York, whether they see themselves as a man or a woman. The question comes unprepared - reflected in the diversity of answers. The movie has been produced in collaboration with Voom HD Lab. It is a sociological study with surprising answers, short cuts about people's self-representation, about identity, sex, and gender.

The Rosary | Sibha as a Communal Sculpture

2007. Installation with painted pottery and steel chains. 99 beads 12 inches each, 120 feet overall-length. Video documentary, 5 min 8, DVD. Movie-Link

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.

The Threshold as a 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 (Link)

History of Art

Artist Book, 2005, 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.

"dis-positiv". International exhibition series

2000-2003. Performance project with plexi glass sculpture 750 square feet, online component, and film.

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.

PaperSeries (DogEars)

Series “PaperWorks”, 2007-ongoing. Paper, photographs, digital fine art prints (variable sizes).

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. 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.

450 Bandages

Mixed Media, 16x20 inches, New York 2009


Photograph, 20x24 inches, New York 2009

Artist Statement

(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

Richard Jochum is a studio member at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts and adjunct professor at Columbia University. He works as a media artist since the late 1990s setting up exhibitions all over the world. 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 exhibitions – 20 works in photography, video, and installation – has been on display at the Gallery Bundo in South-Korea till March 18, 2010. More information can be found at http://richardjochum.net.