Books by Kristin Poor

Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done

by Adrian Heathfield, Malik Gaines, Thomas Lax, Giampaolo Bianconi, Ana Janevski, Harry CH Choi, Vivian A. Crockett, Danielle Goldman, Elizabeth Gollnick, Martha Joseph, Victor “Viv” Liu, Jenny Harris, Sharon Hayes, Benjamin Piekut, Kristin Poor, Julia Robinson, Gloria Sutton

Using "ordinary" movements, the Judson Dance Theater stripped dance of its theatrical conventions
A New York Times Book Review 2019 holiday gift guide pick

Taking its name from the Judson Memorial Church, a socially engaged Protestant congregation in New York's Greenwich Village, Judson Dance Theater was organized as a series of open workshops from which its participants developed performances. Redefining the kinds of movement that could count as dance, the Judson participants―Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Philip Corner, Bill Dixon, Judith Dunn, David Gordon, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Fred Herko, Robert Morris, Steve Paxton, Rudy Perez, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, Carolee Schneemann and Elaine Summers, among others―would go on to profoundly shape all fields of art in the second half of the 20th century. They employed new compositional methods to strip dance of its theatrical conventions, incorporating "ordinary" movements―gestures typical of the street or home, for example, rather than a stage―into their work, along with games, simple tasks, and social dances to infuse their pieces with a sense of spontaneity.
Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done highlights the workshop's ongoing significance. The catalog charts the development of Judson, beginning with the workshops and classes led by Anna Halprin, Robert Ellis Dunn and James Waring, and exploring the influence of other figures working downtown such as Simone Forti and Andy Warhol, as well as venues for collective action like Judson Gallery and the Living Theatre. Lushly illustrated with film stills, photographic documentation, reproductions of sculptural objects, scores, music, poetry, architectural drawings and archival material, the publication celebrates the group's multidisciplinary and collaborative ethos as well as the range of its participants.

Joan Jonas Next Move in a Mirror World

by Kristin Poor, Barbara Clausen

A conceptually innovative take on Jonas' performances and installations

Published in conjunction with the first major US museum show of Joan Jonas' art in nearly 15 years, this volume breaks new ground by contextualizing and expanding understandings of Jonas' body of work through three thematic approaches: the critical notions of gender, being and otherness; the politics of landscape and ecology; and new conceptions of medium specificity and un-specificity. These themes serve as a framework through which to address the rich vocabulary of Jonas' performances, sculptures, drawings and installations from the early 1970s until today.
Inspired by the format of a reader, the monograph presents new writing and scholarship, excerpts from Douglas Crimp's final interview, as well as a selection of drawings and sketches from Jonas' notebooks, including never-before-published drawings created during the coronavirus lockdown.
Born and based in New York, Joan Jonas (born 1936) has taught at UCLA School of the Arts, in Stuttgart, Germany, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she is a professor emerita. She has lived and worked in Greece, Morocco, India, Germany, Holland, Iceland, Poland, Japan, Italy, Hungary and Ireland.