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Photo Light Aliens

CHAIN OF BELIEFThe Flying Saucer Series

Photo Light Paintings

by JONaEON

Catalog of Exhibition

January 2010

with

Photography Against Itself :Chain of Belief by JONaEON

an essay by

Norman BrysonProfessor of Art History

University of California, San Diego

Chain of Belief Art Installation 2005JONaEON

Photography Against Itself: Chain of Belief by JONaEONAn essay by Norman Bryson English 3French 22German 24

Chain of Belief The Origin 5Artistic Statement 5

Photo Light PaintingAn Anointing of Canvas with Illumination 5

Chain of Belief Photolight PaintingsA Series of Fifty Artworks in Ten Editions 5

Flying Saucer Series ‐ Exhibition Edition 6A Series of Twenty‐one Artworks in One Edition

Chain of Belief Edition #1 6A Series of Fifty Artworks in Ten Editions

PricingFlying Saucer Edition release ‐ January 2010 6Edition #1 ‐ release February 2010 630‐Day Collector Window 6Editions #2 ‐ 10 Subsequent Editions Price Increase 7

Flying Saucers Gallery Contact 7

JONaEON’s representation 7

Catalog of Artworks, Chain of Belief, The Saucer Series 18‐45

Contents

Page

Shiva Moon - JONaEONChain of Belief Photolight Painting

2010 Flying Saucers Series28” X 40” $1005

Photography Against Itself: Chain of Belief by JONaEON

The winter of 2010 marks the long‐awaited appearance ofa remarkable work by conceptual photographer JONaEON– Chain of Belief is minimal and stripped down, a bare stageon which no human characters appear, and the drama isenacted instead by silent and inanimate forces – the moon,the night sky, billowing fabric, the wind.

Chain of Belief is a deceptively simple work, a montage ofstill photographs of the night sky, framed by the elevatorshaft of an apartment building in Santa Monica – an austereconcrete structure that has been draped, however, withskeins of sheer red fabric that rise and fall, swell and shiver,with each gust of the passing wind. Though many of theimages in Chain of Belief are individually striking in colorand rhythm, the work itself is first and foremost a se‐quence, running evenly from the first image to the last:what counts is the pacing, the unexpected transformationsof the simple elements – the square frame of the shaft, thebrilliant disc of the moon, the protean dance of the fabric– from one still moment to the next. Chain of Belief insistson placing the still image back in ‘real time,’ that is, as stilledmoments within an ongoing flow of movement.

Implicit in the real‐time montage is a certain suspicion ofstill photography as a possible agent or accomplice in thereification of the visual field. Everything around us exists induration. Durée is the temporal matrix that I, as a livingbeing, inhabit and share with the things of the world. Butof this successive, unfolding time the still camera knowsnothing; and in place of the shared grounding in co‐evaltime (the human being and the object world movingthrough time side by side) still photography gives us a pic‐ture of the world as pure object, ‘out there’: the world ‘op‐posite’ or ‘against’ the human being – a deadened world offacticity and reification.

Sphinx Moon - JONaEONChain of Belief Photolight Painting


Chain of Belief systematically counteracts still photogra‐phy’s tendency toward objectification of the world, and, byimplication, its construction of the viewing subject asstanding against the world and outside the world. Thoughso little ‘happens’ (“There was an apartment building. Themoon rose. It crossed the sky……”) it is a work capable ofgenerating a remarkable range of intensities in the viewerwho is prepared to work with its structure of suggestion.Its slightly dilated exposure times have the property of al‐lowing successive states of change to co‐exist withoutforging a synthesis between them. They take advantage ofthe camera’s ability not to impose an organizing point ofview. If still photography can easily lend itself to the projectof mundane vision – seeing objects set apart from one an‐other, in a uniform extended space – Chain of Belief pres‐ents a world not of things but of flows and intensities ofsensation, textures and colors fluctuating from moment tomoment.

The sequence of images advances by progressively cancel‐ing its range of determinate forms, forms whose contouror silhouette are tied to fixed markers of legibility. In theirplace multiply auroras and visionary gleams, the billowingundulations of half‐seen drapery, of implicit hoods andmantles, limbs ands faces (salamanders, the legendarycreatures of fire). For the viewer who is prepared to runthe course, the fiery core of Chain of Belief conjures thesorcery of a scrying mirror where whatever is banishedfrom regulated consciousness can now peer in from theedge of vision, emissaries from the heavens or hells that liebeyond or beneath the terra firma of normalized percep‐tion.

Norman Bryson is Professor of Art History at the Universityof California, San Diego, and an Advisory Researcher at theJan van Eyck Institute, Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Red Chamber 3 - JONaEONChain of Belief Photolight Painting


CHAIN OF BELIEFThe OriginJONaEON created the Chain of Belief art installation in2005 as holiday light art for the Santa Monica ArtColony.

The sharing of the warmth at the hearth inspired thecolor palette of lush red hues, reminiscent of firelight’sreflections on flushed faces. Also used symbolically inthe installation were garlands formed by the links oforange chain and the projection of fractal images onfabric. These represented the reiteration of rituals asin the repetition of holiday re‐enactments.

Illuminated by a full moon’s light, the art installationwas photographed By JONaEON in real time using adigital camera. From the recordings, fifty images wereselected for the production of a series of photo lightpainting®.

Artistic StatementIn summary: “Through repetition in time, structure de‐velops and common unity grows as individuals link in acultural Chain of Belief.”

Photo Light PaintingAnointing Canvas with IlluminationJONaEON states. “The objective in photo light paintingis to anoint canvas with the brush strokes of illumina‐tion captured through a crystal lens.”

Chain of Belief Photo Light PaintingsA Series of Fifty Artworks in Ten EditionsThe Chain of Belief Photolight Paintings is a series offifty artworks each produced in a signed limited editionon canvas. Each artwork measures 44 inches by 66inches outstretched, or 40 by 62 inches in gallery wrapmounting.


The artist will produce a total of ten complete edi‐tions, with each edition containing fifty unique pieces.Each piece is a “Chain of Belief Photolight Painting, anoriginal artwork on canvas, produced, signed andnumbered by the artist, JONaEON.”

The Flying Saucer Series Alien in my Art ‐ Special Exhibition Edition Twenty Photo‐light Paintings released Jan 2010 The “Saucer Series” is a edition of twenty artworksfrom CHAIN OF BELIEF series. Unique in the SaucerSeries is the new works of aliens imagery found in themirroring of the original Chain of Belief recordings.The Saucer Series is in exhibition during January 2010at the Flying Saucers Art Gallery in Santa Monica, Cal‐ifornia.

The Saucer Series, as represented in this catalog, isavailable for purchase at this time. Each artworks oncanvas measures 44 by 28 inches horizontally out‐stretched, or 40 by 24 inches in gallery wrap mounting(reverse height & width for the vertical pieces). Eachwork of art is valued at $1005, or $20,100 for thetwenty artwork Edition.

Chain of Belief Photolight PaintingsEdition #1 ‐ To be release February 2010Edition #1, the first complete set of the fifty originalChain of Belief Photolight Paintings, will be releasedFebruary 2010, with each artwork valued at $2010, or$100,500 for the fifty piece Edition.

Edition #1 and subsequent Editions will be available forpurchase as a whole collection for only 30 days. This30 day window is intended to facilitate collectors andinstitutions purchase of the entire collection.


Editions #2 ‐ 10 Subsequent Editions Price IncreaseUpon the release of each subsequent Edition, theprice of each photolight painting in the newest Editionwill be increased to twice the amount of the prior Edi‐tion. In other words, individual images from Edition #1will be offered at $2010, while individual images fromEdition #2 will be offered for $4020, from Edition #3for $8040, from Edition #4 for $16,080 and so on.

If after thirty days the complete Edition remains avail‐able, single images from the Edition may then becomeavailable for purchase. Images will be produced, mar‐keted and sold at the discretion of JONaEON to collec‐tors, galleries and museums for exhibitions.

Flying Saucers Gallery ContactPurchase of artworks on exhibition at Flying SaucersGallery made be arranged by contacting:Ryan MacLeod MorrisFlying Saucers Caffeine & Art306 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica CA 90405310 868 8361 Cell‐ 415‐533‐5185

JONaEON’s representationEnvironmental Arts & Research, Inc.1011 Pico Blvd. #1Santa Monica, CA 90405310 383 0605Email: [email protected].

Pegasus - JONaEONChain of Belief Photolight Painting


Photo Light AliensCHAIN OF BELIEF

The Flying Saucer SeriesPhoto Light Paintings

by JONaEON

Catalog of Exhibition

January 2010

Photo Light Aliens by JONaEON2010 Flying Saucers Series

Chain of Belief ‐ Photolight Painting

Title Size Price PagePhoto Light Alien 1 40“ x 28” $1005 18Photo Light Alien 2 40“ x 28” $1005 20Photo Light Alien 3 40“ x 28” $1005 22Photo Light Alien 4 40“ x 28” $1005 24Photo Light Alien 5 40“ x 28” $1005 26Photo Light Alien 6 40“ x 28” $1005 28Photo Light Alien 7 40“ x 28” $1005 30Photo Light Alien 8 ‐ 40“ x 28” $1005 32Shiva Moon 28” x 40“ $1005 34Moon Madonna 28” x 40“ $1005 35Hearth’s Faces 28” x 40“ $1005 36Saucer’s Shell 28” x 40“ $1005 37Red Chamber #1 28” x 40“ $1005 38Red Chamber #2 28” x 40“ $1005 39Red Chamber #3 28” x 40“ $1005 40Red Chamber #4 28” x 40“ $1005 41Red Chamber #5 28” x 40“ $1005 42Wise One 28” x 40“ $1005 43Salemander #2 28” x 40“ $1005 44Pegasus 28” x 40“ $1005 45

Flying Saucers Gallery ContactPurchase of artworks on exhibition at Flying SaucersGallery made be arranged by contacting:Ryan MacLeod MorrisFlying Saucers Caffeine & Art306 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica CA 90405310 868 8361 Cell‐ 415‐533‐5185

Photo Light Alien 1 - JONaEONChain of Belief Photolight Painting

2010 Flying Saucers Series40“ x 28” $1005

Photo Light Alien 2- JONaEONChain of Belief Photolight Painting


Photo Light Alien 4- JONaEONChain of Belief Photolight Painting


Moon Madonna- JONaEONChain of Belief Photolight Painting


Shiva Moon - JONaEONChain of Belief Photolight Painting


Salemander 2 - JONaEONChain of Belief Photolight Painting


Wise One - JONaEONChain of Belief Photolight Painting


Pegasus - JONaEONChain of Belief Photolight Painting


Chaîne de Croyance

Chaîne de c royance est une œuvre faussement simpliste,montage de clichés de ciel nocturne encadré par la cagedʼascenseur dʼun immeuble de Santa Monica, structurede béton austère, drapée cependant de lés de voile rougetransparent qui sʼélèvent et retombent, enflent et frémis-sent à chaque souffle de vent qui passe. Bien que denombreuses images de Chaîne de croyance soient, indi-viduellement, éclatantes de couleur et de rythme, lʼœu-vre en elle-même est avant tout une séquence qui sedéroule doucement de la première à la dernière image.Ce qui compte, cʼest le rythme, les transformations inat-tendues des éléments simples, le cadre carré de la cage,le disque étincelant de la lune, la danse protéenne delʼétoffe, dʼun instant immobilisé au suivant. Chaîne decroyance sʼattache à replonger le cliché dans « le tempsréel », cʼest-à-dire le présenter en temps quʼinstant im-mobilisé au sein dʼun flot de mouvements continus.

Dans le montage en temps réel il existe une suspicion im-plicite que le cliché se pose en agent possible ou en com-plice de la réification du champ visuel. Tout ce qui existeautour de nous existe dans la durée. La durée est la ma-trice temporelle que jʼhabite et partage, en temps quʼêtrevivant, avec les choses du monde. Mais lʼappareil pho-tographique ne connaît rien de la continuité de ce tempsqui se déroule. Et, au lieu dʼune évaluation partagée dece temps (car le monde de lʼêtre humain et celui de lʼobjetse déplacent dans le temps lʼun à côté de lʼautre), lecliché photographique nous donne une image du mondeen tant quʼobjet à lʼétat pur, « là-bas » : le monde « enface » ou « contre » lʼêtre humain, un monde engourdi defaux-semblants et de réification.

Installation Detail - JONaEONChain of Belief Art Installation

Chaîne de croyance prend systématiquement le contre-piedde la tendance du cliché photographique à déshumaniserle monde et, par conséquent, à considérer le sujet commeposant devant le monde et en dehors du monde. Bien quepratiquement rien ne « se passe » (« Il y avait un immeuble.La lune sʼest levée. Elle a traversé le ciel… »), cette œuvreest capable de générer une gamme remarquable dʼinten-sités émotionnelles chez lʼobservateur qui sera disposé àœuvrer avec ses structures de suggestion. Les temps dʼex-position légèrement dilatés ont la faculté de permettre la co-existence dʼétats successifs de changement sans quʼil nese forge une synthèse entre eux. Ils tirent profit de ce quelʼappareil photographique détient la capacité de ne pas im-poser un point de vue organisationnel. Tandis que le clichéphotographique peut se prêter facilement au projet de la vi-sion ordinaire (voir les objets comme séparés les uns desautres, dans un espace étendu et uniforme), Chaîne decroyance présente un monde constitué non de choses maisde flux et dʼintensités sensorielles, de textures et decouleurs fluctuantes dʼun instant à lʼautre.

La séquence dʼimages se déroule, effaçant progressive-ment lʼéventail des formes déterminées, formes dont lescontours ou la silhouette sont liés à des marqueurs fixés parla lisibilité. En leur lieu et place, des aurores boréales et deslueurs visionnaires se multiplient, ondulations bouillon-nantes dʼune draperie à demi cachée, de capuches et decapes, de membres et de visages (salamandres, créatureslégendaires de feu). Pour lʼobservateur disposé à tenterlʼaventure, le noyau ardent de Chaîne de croyance conjureles maléfices du miroir magique dʼoù toutes ces choses quiont été bannies de la conscience réglementée peuvent enfinémerger subrepticement aux confins de la vision, émis-saires des cieux ou des enfers gisant au-delà ou au-dessous de la terra firma des perceptions normalisées.

Norman Bryson is Professor of Art History at the Universityof California, San Diego, and an Advisory Researcher at theJan van Eyck Institute, Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Installation Detail - JONaEONChain of Belief Art Installation

Chain of Belief

Chain of Belief ist eine fast trügerisch einfache Arbeit, eineFotomontage des Nachthimmels, die durch den Aufzugss-chacht eines Apartmenthauses in Santa Monica eingerahmtwird – eine strenge Betonstruktur, in der leuchtend rote Stoff-bahnen drapiert wurden, die mit jedem Windstoß fallen undsteigen, anschwellen und zittern. Obwohl viele der Bilder derReihe Chain of Belief schon einzeln durch ihre Farbe undihren Rhythmus überzeugen, wird diese Arbeit vor allem alsSequenz bedeutsam, die sich uns vom ersten zum letztenBild der Reihe erschließt.

Was hier wirklich zählt, ist die Verlangsamung der Bewegung,die unerwarteten Veränderungen einzelner Elemente – derquadratische Rahmen des Aufzugsschachtes, die leuchtendeMondscheibe, der proteische Tanz des Stoffes – von einerMomentaufnahme zur nächsten. Wie The Chain of Belief zie-len darauf ab, das Einzelbild wieder in den Kontext derEchtzeit zu setzen, also als Momentaufnahmen eineslaufenden Bewegungsflusses.

Hinter dieser Echtzeit-Montage steht der Zweifel, ob Momen-taufnahmen als Hilfsmittel zur Abbildung des Sichtbaren über-haupt geeignet sind. Alles um uns herum existiert alsZeitdauer. Durée ist die zeitliche Matrix, in der ich als Lebe-wesen lebe und die ich mit den Dingen der Welt gemeinsamhabe. Aber von dieser vergehenden, sich entfaltenden Zeitweiß die Kamera nichts, und statt eines gemeinsamen Fun-daments der Gleichzeitigkeit (der Mensch und die Objektweltbewegen sich Seite an Seite durch die Zeit), gibt uns die Mo-mentaufnahme ein Abbild der Welt als reines Objekt, „dadraußen“. Die Welt steht im Gegensatz zum Menschen – eineerstarrte, verdinglichte Welt.

Chain of Belief kehrt systematisch den Trend des Einzelbildeszur Vergegenständlichung der Welt um, und als Folge davonauch die Position des sehenden Subjekts, das gegen die Weltund außerhalb der Welt steht. Obwohl so wenig„passiert“...(„Es war einmal ein Apartmenthaus. Der Mond gehtauf. Er zieht über den Himmel...“) ist dies eine Arbeit, die aufden Betrachter, der sich auf ihre Suggestivität einlässt,außerordentlich intensiv wirkt.

Die leicht verlängerten Belichtungszeiten ermöglichen aufeinander folgenden Zuständen der Veränderung, neben einan-der zu existieren, ohne eine Synthese zwischen ihnen zuerzwingen. Sie nutzen die Fähigkeit der Kamera, keinen or-ganisierenden Standpunkt vorzuschreiben. Während Einze-laufnahmen normalerweise alltägliche Visionen schaffen, indenen Objekte getrennt von einander in einem gleichmäßigausgedehnten Raum existieren, zeigt uns Chain of Belief dage-gen nicht eine Welt der Dinge, sondern einen Fluss von Inten-sitäten und Gefühlen, in dem sich Texturen und Farben voneinem Moment zum nächsten wandeln.

Im Laufe der Bildsequenz werden die konkreten Formen schrit-tweise ausgelöscht, Formen, deren Konturen oder Silhouettenals feststehende Zeichen deutbar sind. An ihre Stelle tretenzunehmend polarlichtartige, visionäre Schimmer, wogendeWellen der nur halb sichtbaren Stoffe, erahnte Kapuzen undMäntel, Gliedmaßen und Gesichter (Salamander, die leg-endären Feuerwesen). Für den Betrachter, der es wagt, sichder Herausforderung zu stellen, beschwört die Glut von Chainof Belief einen magischen Spiegel herauf, in dem alles, dasaus dem normalen Bewusstsein verbannt wurde, nun durchdie Grenzen des Sichtbaren hereinspähen kann - Abgesandteaus Himmel oder Hölle, die weit jenseits der Terra Firma derstandardisierten Wahrnehmung beheimatet sind.

Norman Bryson is Professor of Art History at the University ofCalifornia, San Diego, and an Advisory Researcher at the Janvan Eyck Institute, Maastricht, the Netherlands.

JONaEONChain of Belief Art Installation

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