From sandcastles and relic-like sculptures to an immersive three-channel video, Jonah King’s exhibition, How the West Was Won, reveals unique relationships among geologic time, colonialism, climate change, and golf. King’s exhibition purposefully shares the title of the 1962 ultra-widescreen American western film, which opens with this narration: “This land has a name today and is marked on maps. But the names and the marks and the land all had to be won. Won from nature and from primitive man”. This film and unnerving quote about westward expansion contextualizes the entire exhibition—not just in the artwork’s content but also its mediums. For instane, King’s stunning ultra-wide video projection directly references the format of the original film, but in the place of gallant cowboys trailblazing western trails there are two older white men, in casual sports attire, playing an eternal round of golf in the middle of the Mojave Desert—a foreboding foreshadow of the consequences of climate change. Like two ghosts, the golfers seem to be forever destined to haunt the barren landscape, not with rattling chains, but with swinging golf clubs.
Rockford Art Museum is proud to host New Genres Art Space presenting Jonah King: How The West Was Won. This exhibition and its related educational programming are sponsored by Lisa and Mark Lindman. Exhibition-related materials are supported in-part by a grant from Rockford Area Arts Council.
Exhibition Listing
Is There Golf in Heaven? Sarah Aziz and Adam Farcus in discussion on Jonah King’s exhibition How the West was Won - Sixty Inches from Center
Rockford Art Museum is proud to host New Genres Art Space presenting Jonah King: How The West Was Won. This exhibition and its related educational programming are sponsored by Lisa and Mark Lindman. Exhibition-related materials are supported in-part by a grant from Rockford Area Arts Council.
Exhibition Listing
Is There Golf in Heaven? Sarah Aziz and Adam Farcus in discussion on Jonah King’s exhibition How the West was Won - Sixty Inches from Center
HistoryOf.Golf is a web project containing video, sound and text. (...) A video embed contains the film How The West Was Won (2018). An audio button triggers a sound recording of the two men simply exchange dad jokes to one another. Scroll down to view an epic timeline that contextualizes climate change, westward expansion, colonialism, politics, and even the creation of the artwork through the chronology of golf.
Also inside HistoryOf.Golf is an option to purchase a limited edition wearable artwork - M.D.F.A. Hat. The slogan “MAKE DESERT FOREST AGAIN”, on dark green fabric, subverts the infamous Trump slogan to campaign to “green the desert”, a geoengineering solution to climate collapse.
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More Information via New River Journal
Also inside HistoryOf.Golf is an option to purchase a limited edition wearable artwork - M.D.F.A. Hat. The slogan “MAKE DESERT FOREST AGAIN”, on dark green fabric, subverts the infamous Trump slogan to campaign to “green the desert”, a geoengineering solution to climate collapse.
Visit Project
More Information via New River Journal
How The West Was Won is an ultra-wide format film made with California residents Joseph Miller and Richard Milanesi, two self-proclaimed avid golfers and Donald Trump supporters. King invited Miller and Milanesi to play a game of golf across the expansive western Mojave desert, which King documented.
How the West Was Won shares the title of the 1962 ultra-widescreen American western film, which opens with this narration: “This land has a name today and is marked on maps. But the names and the marks and the land all had to be won. Won from nature and from primitive man”. King’s film directly references the format of the original film, but in the place of gallant cowboys trailblazing western trails there are two older white men, in casual sports attire, playing an eternal round of golf in the middle of the Mojave Desert—a foreboding foreshadow of the consequences of climate change. Like two ghosts, the golfers seem to be forever destined to haunt the barren landscape, not with rattling chains, but with swinging golf clubs.
Watch Film
Read: Is There Golf in Heaven? Sarah Aziz and Adam Farcus in discussion on Jonah King’s exhibition How the West was Won by Sarah Aziz and Adam Farcus, Sixty Inches From Center
How the West Was Won shares the title of the 1962 ultra-widescreen American western film, which opens with this narration: “This land has a name today and is marked on maps. But the names and the marks and the land all had to be won. Won from nature and from primitive man”. King’s film directly references the format of the original film, but in the place of gallant cowboys trailblazing western trails there are two older white men, in casual sports attire, playing an eternal round of golf in the middle of the Mojave Desert—a foreboding foreshadow of the consequences of climate change. Like two ghosts, the golfers seem to be forever destined to haunt the barren landscape, not with rattling chains, but with swinging golf clubs.
Watch Film
Read: Is There Golf in Heaven? Sarah Aziz and Adam Farcus in discussion on Jonah King’s exhibition How the West was Won by Sarah Aziz and Adam Farcus, Sixty Inches From Center
In ‘Leisure Sports,’ Jonah King presents a new body of video and sculpture work. The artist developed the works in collaboration with Joseph Miller and Richard Milanesi, two California residents, avid golfers, and supporters of Donal Trump. King invited the two men to participate in an impossible game of golf across the arid Mohave desert.
A single channel looping work, “How The West Was Won,” takes its name from the title of a 1962 John Ford movie, one of two feature films shot in the extravagant super-wide format. The epic-western genre film chronicles the history of the American West from 1839-1890.
The two-channel installation “The Good News Is, He Thinks I’m God,” is derived from the participants repotire of “Dad-Jokes,” an American joke format similar to the British “shaggy dog story.” This awkward, long-form format, relies on the invincibility of an intentionally disappointing punch-line and is colloquially known as a mark implicit desperation, presented at a moment of conversation lull as a way to seem relevant or entertaining across a generation gap.
Two accompanying works “Untitled (relic)” and “Joseph Miller, Richard Milanesi, 1851”, position the participants across different positions in time. The subjects own bodies, their ancestors, and the far future. “Untitled (relic)” is engraved with a central diagram from Copernicus’s “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres,” the first recorded conception of the solar-system in Western cosmology where Earth is not depicted as the center of the universe.
The first pioneers colonizing the American West met the territorial end of the New World on the Pacific coast of California. Since then, that county has been the epicenter of further colonial projects. The decimation of American values via entertainment and tech, and most recently the first private ventures into outer space. California is the wealthiest state in North America, and the sixth largest economy on Earth, however, its entire infrastructure exists in direct contradiction to its environment. The last ten years of drought is said to have been the driest in 1200 years, and cities such as Los Angeles are in constant battle with water shortages and wildfires.
Taking inspiration from Descartes, The French Classical Garden style emerged to epitomize monarch and ‘man’ dominating and manipulating nature to show his authority, wealth, and power. The golf course, with its unnatural, manicured landscape is a direct descendant of that impulse. There are 1,126 full sized golf courses in California, including many owned by US President, Donald Trump.
Read More...
Photo: Marco Davolio
Is There Golf in Heaven? Sarah Aziz and Adam Farcus in discussion on Jonah King’s exhibition How the West was Won - Sixty Inches from Center
A single channel looping work, “How The West Was Won,” takes its name from the title of a 1962 John Ford movie, one of two feature films shot in the extravagant super-wide format. The epic-western genre film chronicles the history of the American West from 1839-1890.
The two-channel installation “The Good News Is, He Thinks I’m God,” is derived from the participants repotire of “Dad-Jokes,” an American joke format similar to the British “shaggy dog story.” This awkward, long-form format, relies on the invincibility of an intentionally disappointing punch-line and is colloquially known as a mark implicit desperation, presented at a moment of conversation lull as a way to seem relevant or entertaining across a generation gap.
Two accompanying works “Untitled (relic)” and “Joseph Miller, Richard Milanesi, 1851”, position the participants across different positions in time. The subjects own bodies, their ancestors, and the far future. “Untitled (relic)” is engraved with a central diagram from Copernicus’s “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres,” the first recorded conception of the solar-system in Western cosmology where Earth is not depicted as the center of the universe.
The first pioneers colonizing the American West met the territorial end of the New World on the Pacific coast of California. Since then, that county has been the epicenter of further colonial projects. The decimation of American values via entertainment and tech, and most recently the first private ventures into outer space. California is the wealthiest state in North America, and the sixth largest economy on Earth, however, its entire infrastructure exists in direct contradiction to its environment. The last ten years of drought is said to have been the driest in 1200 years, and cities such as Los Angeles are in constant battle with water shortages and wildfires.
Taking inspiration from Descartes, The French Classical Garden style emerged to epitomize monarch and ‘man’ dominating and manipulating nature to show his authority, wealth, and power. The golf course, with its unnatural, manicured landscape is a direct descendant of that impulse. There are 1,126 full sized golf courses in California, including many owned by US President, Donald Trump.
Read More...
Photo: Marco Davolio
Is There Golf in Heaven? Sarah Aziz and Adam Farcus in discussion on Jonah King’s exhibition How the West was Won - Sixty Inches from Center
