Dawn Kasper Research

 Dawn Kasper is a visual artist working across genres of performance, installation, sculpture, drawing, photography, video and sound.

Some important themes in her work that I focused on were body as the medium, creativity as a process, and blending of different spheres. Through the environments and installation spaces that Kasper creates to put her body within she confronts the boundaries of the viewer and asks for participation in a different way.

 

In her Evil series and death scenes, she situates herself in bloody and gory violent scenes. She is reenacting her own death, and she is making the viewers in the gallery space come face to face with and try to understand the presence of her "dead" body in the space. 

Kasper's "This could be something if I let it" show in the 2012 Whitney Biennial is one of the things that interested me the most in focusing on Kasper's installation works. This is part of her "Nomadic Studio practices," and experiment that she started after losing her job and access to a permanent studio space. For the Biennial, she moves her whole studio into the gallery space and lives/works (but does not sleep) in the museum. This is a very interesting blur between public and private (especially in the creative capacity). She is also interested in sound, and interactions between people; breaking barriers between the artist as an "all-knowing force" or whatever, and the viewer as the perpetually stupid bystander to the genius of the artist.

Video posted about the project by the Whitney (link)

another video about the biennial

This work also really interested me, Kasper's Music for hoarders. She uses soundscape and the principals of overwhelming/overstimulating the viewers/participants.

music for hoarders (video)

The last thing listed in this blog post (but really, what got me interested in Dawn Kasper in the first place) are these photos from a performance piece she did about body as object.

I actually emailed her about this piece because I wanted a little more information and she actually responded! And sent me this video.

video from dawn kasper about body as object performance

This is my long list of sources referenced/cited:

“#217 Dawn Kasper : The Wolf and the Head on Fire - Portikus Frankfurt.” Portikus.de, 2019, www.portikus.de/en/exhibitions/217_the_wolf_and_the_head_on_fire. Accessed 20 May 2026.

                Albertini,     Rosanna. Dawn Kasper from DEAD OBJECTS -to RECREATE LIFE.

                   “Bot Detection.” Artlinkart.com, 2026, www.artlinkart.com/en/artist/wrk_sr/706dvzsi/b5aa. Accessed 20 May 2026.

                    “Dawn Kasper.” Whitney Museum of American Art, 2026, whitney.org/exhibitions/2012-biennial/Dawn-Kasper. Accessed 20 May 2026.

                    Dawn Kasper. “NEED for SELF.” YouTube, 4 Sept. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkAhbBkSjO0. Accessed 20 May 2026.

                       “Dawn Kasper - Music for Hoarders - HONOR FRASER.” HONOR FRASER, 31 Mar. 2023, honorfraser.com/programming/music-for-hoarders/. Accessed 20 May 2026.

                       Green, Penelope . “Please, Don’t Feed the Artist.” New York Times, 25 Apr. 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/garden/dawn-kasper-at-the-whitney-biennial.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2. Accessed 20 May 2026.

                    “Inside the Biennale in 360° | Ep. 8: Dawn Kasper.” Facebook.com, 2016, www.facebook.com/artsy/videos/10155422876558407/. Accessed 20 May 2026.

                    Kasper, Dawn. “This Could Be Something If I Let It 2012 - Dawnkasper.com.” Dawnkasper.com, 2024, dawnkasper.com/This-Could-Be-Something-If-I-Let-It-2012. Accessed 20 May 2026.

                “Redling Fine Art—Dawn Kasper.” Redlingfineart.com, 2016, redlingfineart.com/artists/dawn-kasper. Accessed 20 May 2026.

                   Simonini, Ross. “Dawn Kasper Hears You.” Artreview.com, 2019, artreview.com/ar-december-2019-simonini-dawn-kasper/. Accessed 20 May 2026.

                      Snow, Philippa. “Dawn Kasper’s Death Scenes by Philippa Snow.” The Paris Review, 31 Oct. 2022, www.theparisreview.org/blog/2022/10/31/dawn-kaspers-death-scenes/. Accessed 20 May 2026.

                    The Museum of Contemporary Art. “Dawn Kasper - the Artist’s Studio - MOCAtv.” YouTube, 24 Oct. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg50VtFsdFI. Accessed 20 May 2026.

There might be a wolf in the hoop house

 I took a video, but it is too big to attach to this website. I will now plug in my phone to the TV

wolf one hour sounds

Is there an idea in here?; is there a wolf in here?

For this installation, I am hoping to overwhelm the viewer/participant with sensory information. This idea is based on a bit that I like to do with my friends (that always gets a surprisingly large number of laughs) where I do a very unconvincing wolf howl and then pretend to be scared and ask if there is a wolf in here.  ... maybe you just had to be there because this sounds pretty lame via blog post description.

I need to be clear that I have no particular "thing" for wolves. I am not a wolf superfan in any way shape or form, I am just drawn to ideas that I classify as unexpected and/or stupid. I do not want this installation to take itself too seriously, as I think this takes away from the nature of the bit.

In all honesty, I am still unsure of space and place. Maybe the Mudd gallery? I am NOT 100% set on this wolf idea... which I know I need to get on ASAP.

But, saying this were to take place in the Mudd, to start the installation, the room will need to be completely dark. Maybe I will put a moon (a full moon?) in the corner somewhere? (This installation has nothing to do with werewolves. )
I would love it to start with just one video flashing across the wall, or one sound effect going off. awooo?!...

"Is there a wolf in here?"

When it is ramped all the way up, I am envisioning having (at minimum) 4 speakers going with different wolf noises. 2--3 would be actual wolf sounds (1 hour wolf howling sound effects), and 2-3 would play recordings of people pretending to howl like wolves. (Charlotte pretending to howl like a wolf in the cafe) Maybe the recording of the wolf howling scene from Zootopia? Point is, lots of speakers in different places around the room playing lots of different wolf noises simultaneously.

Visually, I want 1-2 projectors projecting videos and pictures of wolves onto the walls. I think I would enjoy trying to draw a hand animated video of wolves running.  

I'm thinking I will also want to include some badly drawn wolves around the room (on those big rolls of paper I can picture a poorly depicted pack of wolves across the wall). Thinking about some cave paintings of wolves and wildlife as inspiration, maybe?

To me, the funny part of the "is there a wolf in here" bit is that it kind of just isn't that funny. It is obvious that I was the one who was howling, and the setting of the joke is typically such that there is no way a wolf would actually be there. I want to evoke that ridiculousness with the installation. I would wander around the space and ask the viewers (in a very fearful and paranoid way) if there is a wolf in the space. I want the visual/auditory aspects of the installation to work side by side with me asking if there are actual wolves.

Blue Day

 I don't care if Monday's blue, Tuesday's gray and Wednesday too, Thursday I don't care about you, it's FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE. Forgive me, my dear devoted blog readers and fans of The Cure, because well, oops, I was blue on Tuesday and not Monday. 

Why shouldn't I be?

If you encountered me in the first hours of this day, I probably reacted to your questions and comments as if they were the most ridiculous and uncalled for things in the world. "Why are you commenting on my body?" "I am just dressed up like always," "I just painted my fingernails blue, maybe that's what you're noticing?" But as the day progressed, I realized that the joy was coming from the conversations I was having with people. Even with people I hardly knew. 

I think people are pretty caught up in needing a reason to do something. I hear whispers through the streets that people want Lawrence to be weird again. Why not just be blue when you have the urge to? My motivations are not some secret agenda. I want people to talk to each other about stuff that is happening in the world.

I voted "blue." Yes, they let me vote. Yes, the poll workers loved it. No, I was not blue for political reasons.

I'm serious about this talk to each other thing. Talk to each other about stuff that is happening. Be weird, you don't need a reason or an explanation to be excited about something (especially something abnormal). Who else is gonna do it?

Objects in Spaces

Dear blog - 

I can't escape the 3D scans! They seem to follow me around in space, but they are just floating around and no one besides me and my phone can see them. They are my own personal ghosts that I created, and some of them are me! For this exercise I was really playing with the idea of physical presence and objecthood.

I took these pictures like this: the app on my phone that I use to take the scans has a feature where I can put the scans "back in the real world" through AR view. I have to pan my phone around so the technology can get a sense of my surroundings, and then the object appears in the space 3 dimensionally in my phone. From the outside, this process just looks like me waving my phone around (maybe looking like I am trying very hard to receive cell service somewhere). Presence and objecthood stood out the most to me when I was trying to place my 3D scans by the library and my friends came up and asked me what I was doing. To me, what I was seeing through my phone felt so apparent and so real. But to any concerned onlookers, I "looked like I was 65" trying to take a picture of something (according to a friend).

A collection of Blue Charlottes in front of the Mudd Library (smallest to biggest from left to right)

Blue Charlotte in giant form standing on Boldt way 

and 

Blue Charlotte in miniature form standing on Evan's hand

 

Ice cream in Library Plaza, on couch, on counter and in washing machine

Mailbox from home in fridge, stairway, by sink, on smoke shack, and on library

Stairs in places, including in stairs

Scan of right-hand holding computer mouse in library plaza and attached to arm of couch

Situations involving Bubbles...

Situations involving sinks...