Adventurous spirit, Bas Jan Ader (1942 – 1975) was a curious one. Being a conceptual performance artist, photographer and filmmaker, he also created audio-video materials, writings and installations making his professional career in 1970s Los Angeles.

In Ader´s performative film “Broken fall (organic)”, he´s hanging from a stubborn tree branch until he looses the grip and falls into the water stream. This takes 1 minute 44 seconds.
In his film “Fall I” he´s sitting on a chair balancing on a roof top, until he falls to the ground. In “Fall II” he´s riding his bike to a canal, falling into the water.

These works have a sense of play that reminds me of childhood – when adventures were always possible, body strengths unlimited.
However when considering Ader´s work more seriously, his concept of studying the aspect of falling contains most essential themes of human life.
The vulnerability of the actor awakens a process of empathy in the viewer. Then, there´s the dimension of distance, seen from the physical and psychological aspect. Many ideas come to mind from the titles too; the opposite of falling is sustaining control an by definition, “fall” implies f.ex. to occur at certain time, to drop in pitch of volume, to suffer ruin, defeat or failure. Interestingly it also means to pass suddenly into a state of body or mind, a new state of condition.

And what about his relationship to natural law of gravity, which he draws into visibility by using his own body. He must have understood that water weakens this law, was that his way of breaking this law just a little bit?
In these performances, there´s waiting, suspension, the temporal and spatial shifts in the action, all of which give clues for meaning making.
But perhaps, it is not the tension of holding, the moment of loosing a grip nor the risks and painful collapsing to the ground surface – but the less dramatic and more invisible moment in between these – the letting go, that I find interesting.

Ader also created a triptych project “In Search of the Miraculous”. The first part of this consisted of an exhibition (1973) with photographs of the artist walking with a flashlight in a dark nightly urban landscape (the human construction). On the surface of the photographs, there´s handwritten lyrics from a song, dealing with aspect of searching.
In Search of the Miraculous -project culminated (1975) in a form of a voyage. The plan was to cross the Atlantic Ocean, landing in Europe. With a choir singing sea shanties at his studio in L.A, Ader set off with his small vessel “Ocean Wave”.

Interested in spiritual aspects, Ader had found the title for this performance from a philosopher P.D Ouspensky´s same named book, which reflected his association with his teacher George Gurdjieff, known for his dynamic system of working with oneself, the Fourth Way (1890-1912). This focuses on reaching towards humanity as part of universe, f.ex through practicing “conscious labour”, meaning presence in actions. The teachings also include the notion of the “art of self-remembering.” This to me seem to propose an assumption of something being forgotten or lost. There´s the need but a also the way to deeper knowledge, which to me resonate as an archaic code, written under our skin.

But for Ader, there´s no way of knowing, whether his voyage was more about searching – or having already found what was needed.
And how was it then to navigate and negotiate with constantly changing powerful element of the sea – and the self?

We are left with imagining what exactly happened during this journey because he never came back from the sea.
There is no real ending to Ader´s last performance piece. The idea of this journey is therefore infinite – in the minds of those who encounter this work.
One can conclude though, that he must have had all possible faith in the importance of leaving the already known grounds.

It is this strategy of “going – towards” (the opposite to avoidance) that I relate to in his work. It´s the beginning of a meaningful dialogue.

Videos & more: basjanader.com