Francesca Woodman and Dawn Kasper are two artists that utilize rich and particular perspectives through the use of body, space, and performance. Their art convey deeper meanings within self and subjectivity.

Kasper will be performing at the Whitney Biennial 2012 during the same time Woodman’s photography will be displayed at the Guggenheim. I find this an opportunity, and I plan to view both events in-person, as it will heighten my understandings of their work and provide valuable insights that will benefit my Master’s thesis project.

120 of her photographs of Woodman’s, along with her videos and artist books will be displayed in retrospect at the Guggenheim in conjunct with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This exhibition is the first comprehensive collection of her work, with newly released pieces, in the United States. By large, the intensity of this exhibit will thread many of her artistic intentions and visions into one space, where her conceptual pieces will be explored within a perspective that represents her work in historical context and contemporary relevancy.

Viewing Woodman’s work in-person will permit me the chance to examine more closely the validity of her favorite subject: herself. It is necessary to view these works in person so that my interaction with her work is authentic to my own thoughts and experience. I want my writing on Woodman to be inspired by what I feel and see when viewing her work in-person. I plan to view this exhibit twice on two separate occasions so that I fully engage myself with her work.

Dawn Kasper is a performance artist of self-portraits, and relatively unknown and unexplored by scholars, though her work has not gone unnoticed. The meaning of self is neither fixed nor singular, and Kasper’s work, whether in photographic form or in live-art, are intuitive and uncanny, where her body is a vessel of meaning in identity. Her current project at the Whitney is multidimensional within self-portraiture. She has taken up gallery space and re-staged her art studio; a place she hasn’t been able to afford on her own since 2008. It is not a closed space, either, rather it is an ongoing experiment called THIS COULD BE SOMETHING IF I LET IT. Biennial patrons can engage and interact with her and her self-identified space while she is completing projects. She opens what is often a private space for artists, public. 

I intend to participate on a day where she is scheduled to perform. Viewing Kasper’s performance will demonstrate the immediacy of her project(s), as well as witness how Kasper connects self-exploration, persona, and the body to her larger studio project and her individual performance pieces. Viewing her perform, will provide me an understanding behind her project(s), and how each element self-represents her. I will also access the experience of her visceral work, as it is an event that can only be experienced once.