Casper Heinemann’s work: http://angstravaganza.tumblr.com/
Casper Heinemann through their talks read poetry they had both been inspired by and had written themself whilst showing images of their sculptural work and installations in the background. I liked this style of presentation as I feel that it really allows you to witness how the artist works and a small snippet of their mind. Casper was very much like this, with the rushed and almost anxious presentation that refused to describe itself in a formal, scripted manot emphasising the issues that were present within their work such as anxiety, depression and other such mental health issues. Casper talked about coming to the talk wanting to talk about ‘relevant, autobiographical information but didn’t feel it resonated for this talk.’ They also spoke in their performance about potentially dropping out of the art world because they just felt they wrote gross poems about sex and flowers in the end and how there isn’t enough “‘coconut oil and meditation in the world’….’sometimes we need to be bloody and raw'” before explaining their potential dreams of owning a farm instead and living the easy farming life, however I felt this was rather pretentious because it romantisied farming and rural poverty and life long dedication to a job that allows no retirement and sickdays whilst complaining about the romantisiation of the realities of hardship and the need to face it head on. Even though par tof me feels this though it also made me reflect on how artists do not need to have it perfect and most certainly do not need to have consistency in what they comment on because there is something very vulnerable and honest with just commenting on how you feel in that moment whilst also bringing inspiration from past reading’s, experiences and understandings and I felt Casper was very much this kind of artist.
I think that was probably the best part of their art for me was the confessional style. How they explained they have ‘nervous break downs that arent nervous breakdowns in the clinically defined way but instead more of an umbrella term for when coping is no longer coping.’ I felt there was a sense of sincerity within these small coined phrases that many people even beyond the art world could immediatley resonate with however I did also feel that some of their work was an attempt to push boundaries and shock even though these boundaries had been pushed in the same way before.
Bea Kilduff 