RJJ_2020

National Idiom: the Machines (Presentation of work in progress), 2020.
Duration 28 mins.

Documentation of a work-in-progress version of National Idiom: The Machines at Frascati Theater, Amsterdam, as part of the festival Come Together #5. The performance works with the impact of technology on the body, working through and against systems of constraint and control, drawing on the folk tradition of East-Lancashire clogging.

About the work:
National Idiom: The Machines is a work in progress by Jones that draws on the folk tradition of East-Lancashire clogging to explore the impact of technology on the body, working through and against systems of constraint and control. Emerging from the cotton mills in the 19th century, where women would tap along to the relentless rhythms of the mechanised looms, clogging is a symbol of the deeply interwoven histories around textile production, local cultural idioms, and feelings of belonging. This work, which is in development, intends to contextualise the various historical ‘rediscoveries’ of folk traditions within the current context of a resurgence of nationalisms in post-industrial regions in Europe and elsewhere. Clogging and other folk expressions are both extremely specific whilst also being deeply interconnected and shared amongst many regions and cultures across the world. At the heart of this work is an understanding of the connection between the development of technology, particularly the mechanical loom and early computers, and the effect these developments have had upon bodies and subjectivities. This particular development included field recordings and interviews with workers employed in contemporary engineering and manufacturing industries in the Nottighamshire area. The clogging routines were done through workshops with the Greenwood Cloggers.

Performed by Richard John Jones and Eva Susova.
Costume design: Max Allen
Scenography painting: Mikolaj Sobczak
Sound Design: patten

Supported by Arts Council England and Amsterdam Fonds Voor De Kunst

With thanks to the Greenwood Cloggers and Dacol Engineering.

images: Reinout Bos

𝗨𝗡𝗕𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗚 = 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗬𝗜𝗡𝗚
A reading encounter for six voices about living and dying in a pandemic.

Kem presents Szymon Adamczak’s and Richard John Jones’ new project, a two-part audio journey of a number of key texts and statements bearing witness to the personal and collective experiences relating to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Moving between the forms of podcast, rehearsal, and discussion, Unbecoming = Undying follows a live gathering of friends and peers re-voicing source texts and reflecting on their affective, personal and political resonance today.

The selection of texts is born out of research into the AIDS journal genre and is accompanied by excerpts from zines, artists’ books and catalogues. The editorial work began remotely whilst in quarantine and these conditions are echoed both practically and theoretically throughout the production process.

Through the act of reading together, Unbecoming = Undying touches on themes of LGBTQ militancy, mobilisation, kinship, the intimate experience of illness, systemic exclusion, and how movement, migration, and the passing of time shape our understanding of these. A virus has been transmitted, not HIV but the virus of writing and reading aloud.

𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Szymon Adamczak, Richard John Jones
𝗠𝗶𝘅: Krzysztof Bagiński
𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀:
Hrafnhildur Helgadóttir, Mavi Veloso, Maurits de Bruijn, Matthew Docherty.

𝗙𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁𝘀 𝗯𝘆: Karen Finley, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Danez Smith, Gregg Bordowitz, AA Bronson, Carué Contreiras, Guillaume Dustan, Keith Haring, Essex Hemphill, Derek Jarman, Joezine, Larry Kramer, Eric Michaels, David Wojnarowicz
Commissioned by Kem. The project is financed by the Capital City of Warsaw as part of the 'Centrum Jasna' program.

Kem · UNBECOMING = UNDYING / part 1

Kem · UNBECOMING = UNDYING / part 2

Encounter #2

This online video collage, hosted by Cosmos Carl, documents an encounter between the artists Richard John Jones and Clara Saito, both based in Amsterdam. Emerging from a larger collaborative project by the artist-run space, Jacuzzi, this performance work is shaped by the limits of lockdown and the subsequent mediated mis/communication.

'Encounter #2' follows Richard and Clara as they get to know each other, share ways of working and negotiate their personal lives, the things they share and their differences. Exclusively using footage filmed on their phones, it moves between reality and fiction, documentation and performance, truth and lies.

This project is supported by the Mondriaan Fonds and is produced in collaboration with the artist-run space, Jacuzzi.

Set Design for 'Melly TV'

The set design for Melly TV, a three episode TV broadcast to launch the new name of Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam, includes the new print work 'The Dedication: Melly' by Richard John Jones. Designed to appear throughout the episodes as a table cloth, a backdrop, and as clothing, accompanied by a changing colour scheme and light-scapes, the work marks the second in a series of dedications.

This series of 'dedication' works are made specficially for an exhibition, event or institution, combining images provided by the commissioner and liquifying them to create a marbled pattern. The work inhabits the infrastructure of wherever it appears, the marble pattern and the title always acting simultaneously as a dedication referencing the fabric of a book, the decorative marbled paper often lining the cover of a book and the dedication from the author that appears before the text itself.