Dangerous Games is a collaborative project featuring fine porcelain and fine skills.  Jo joins fellow jugglers in tossing and whirling these fragile, hand-crafted works in a show of skill, daring, and the threat of total destruction.

The Dangerous Games video is part of an exhibition of the porcelain juggling toys, on display until the last week in October. Pieces from the exhibition are on sale through Red Star Studios

Red Star Belger Craneyard Studios

2011 Tracy St, Kansas City, MO

Follow the project, see Installation pictures, and videos of opening night performances (coming soon) on facebook

Artist Statement:

The Dangerous Games project began on a whim and a dare. However, over the course of the project I came to understand juggling not as a care-free distraction from my studio work, but a parallel discipline which illuminated my understanding of my practice as an artist, and pointed toward to a new way of working.  My experiences learning to juggle for this project led me toward an awareness of performance, and through this lens, back to considerations of presentation.  This project is my most ambitious to date, and has allowed me to explore questions about objects and installation, performance, time-based media and documentation, and what it means to be a professional.

Dangerous Games also marks a recent trend in my work toward collaborative projects.  Working in collaboration has allowed me to imagine projects beyond my abilities; this project drove me to learn new skills, and to work with many others without whom it would not have been possible.

I want to thank some of the those who helped made this happen:

• Red Star Studios, and particularly, the residents and members who tolerated my expansive use of communal space.

• The Metropolitan Community College Fablab and Jennifer Dec, their technician who facilitated my use of their equipment.

• The Kansas City Juggling Club, where this project started, and whose members are my performers, and my teachers.  Any faults of mine are due only to my neglect of their good advice.

• Andrew Olson, the videographer and editor of the Dangerous Games video.

• Tommy Frank, without whom this project would be unfinished, and I would likely have gone crazy.

Jacob Tichenor, International Juggling Association Festival 2013