Constance DeJong (writer)

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Constance DeJong (born 1950 ) is an American writer and performance artist .

life and work

DeJong's literary work is closely related to her performances, videos, new media artworks. In 1977 she published her first book, Modern Love . It was published by Standard Editions, a publisher that she herself - together with Dorothea Tanning - had founded. The following year she extracted an excerpt from the book and presented it as a one-hour radio broadcast. Philip Glass wrote his Modern Love Waltz for this . In 2017 the book was published in a facsimile new edition.

Stefan Cifolelli as Gandhi in Satyagraha
Komische Oper Berlin , October 2017

In 1977 she presented a collection of poems in New York's legendary avant-garde meeting place The Kitchen , which appeared as a book in the following year under the title The Lucy Amarillo Stories . The music for the performance was provided by Richard Landry and Ken Deifik . This was followed by the libretto for an opera by Philip Glass, Satyagraha , a work commissioned by the city of Rotterdam, dedicated to Gandhi's early years in South Africa. The premiere on September 5, 1980 in Rotterdam was a great success with the public and the press. The work has also been performed several times in the United States, in 1981 at Artpark near Niagara Falls and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music , in 1987 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago , in 2008 and 2011 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

At the end of the 1980s she began working with video and installation artist Tony Oursler for a long time . At the 1989 Whitney Biennial , two of the early collaborative works were presented:

  • Joyride ™ (1988) is a 15-minute long video tape that metaphorically illuminates theme park and museum culture.
  • Relatives (1989) is a performance that integrates word and video, which has subsequently been shown in 25 cities worldwide, including Amsterdam, Helsinki, Oslo and Zagreb.

Together with Tony Oursler and Stephen Vitiello she realized the long-term project Fantastic Prayers (1995–1998), a series of performances and installations, a website and a CD-ROM, a work commissioned by the Dia Center for the Arts in New York.

In 2000, Constance DeJong created the sound installation Speaking of the River , which connected the Thames in London with the Hudson River in New York. In 2006 she wrote the lyrics for SuperVision , a co-production of the Builders Association and dbox , which was performed at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in New York City .

DeJong is a professor of art and time-bound media at Hunter College of the City University of New York .

selected Writings

  • Modern love . Standard Editions, 1977 (N7433.4.D44 1977), new facsimile edition Primary Information / Ugly Duckling Presse, spring 2017
  • The Lucy Amarillo Stories . Standard Editions, 1978, ISBN 0-918746-03-5
  • Satyagraha, MK Gandhi in South Africa, 1893-1914 . Tanam Press, 1983, ISBN 0-934378-43-6
  • ITILOE Top Stories, 1983
  • Five , 1986

Permanent installation

  • Duets for Animals and People (1994), “talking benches” at Woodland Park Zoo , Seattle, Washington

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Canary Wharf : CONSTANCE DE JONG: SPEAKING OF THE RIVER , accessed November 11, 2017
  2. ↑ YouTube : The Builders Association & dbox - Super Vision , Trailer, accessed November 11, 2017
personal data
SURNAME DeJong, Constance
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer and performance artist
DATE OF BIRTH 1950