Takeover #205 Kasper van Moll
Kasper van Moll: Instagram / Website
#205 (09/05 - 13/05, 2022) written by Sophie Heutink
Kasper van Moll graduated in 2016 from BEAR, formerly known as Fine Art at ArtEZ Arnhem. He finished the Masters program The Commoners’ Society at Sandberg Institute in 2020. Kasper shapes his practice through music, performance and paintings. In all of these works collectivity plays a key role. Using a multimedia method, he plays with the layering and size of moments in existing photo images of performances.
“I see my work as an embrace of the absurd, as well as an ode to the friendships I have.”
Kasper's performances with the collective Broken Toaster Records, which he runs with artists Jelle Slof and Ide André, provide an enormous archive of visual material that he likes to dive into for his paintings. The works arise from the emergence of a shared energy and are expressed in multimedia paintings of various sizes.
"They are photo transfers of photos from past shows that I work go over using oil pastels paint, a lot of water, and a bunch of other things. The pieces become something in themselves as they are slowly further removed from their origin.”
Making moments tangible, holding those moments and releasing them again by applying layer after layer causes the original to become completely transformed. Taking these steps is important in Kasper's work: through the interplay between the existing image and the transformation into a painting he explores the memory, atmosphere and energy contained within them through this process.
In the case of his collective performative works, everything often begins with a set of rules. However, when executing a performance, neither his group nor the viewer knows what will happen next. The exact direction a performance will take is determined through the spontaneous reactions between performer and audience. Sometimes the public takes the instruments they use to play and fully participate, shaping every performance to be totally unique. In some occasions, an installation is built to offer a literal framework or setting for a performance to take place.
"We once made a Covid-proof stage. The audience had to crawl underneath it to get to a good viewpoint of the band. There were holes in the stage with domes on top, so that you could watch the performance up close but still abide by Covid safety measures. We also transformed an exhibition space into a football field once, just to be the band that plays the halftime show. Whether or not we build something really depends on the context, we try to think of something new for each show.”
During the Rizoom takeover, Kasper will open up his studio and show an overview of previous works, as well as sketches for both past and upcoming shows. We can expect a daily painting, and maybe something extra in the stories too.
“I see my work as an embrace of the absurd, as well as an ode to the friendships I have.”
Kasper's performances with the collective Broken Toaster Records, which he runs with artists Jelle Slof and Ide André, provide an enormous archive of visual material that he likes to dive into for his paintings. The works arise from the emergence of a shared energy and are expressed in multimedia paintings of various sizes.
"They are photo transfers of photos from past shows that I work go over using oil pastels paint, a lot of water, and a bunch of other things. The pieces become something in themselves as they are slowly further removed from their origin.”
Making moments tangible, holding those moments and releasing them again by applying layer after layer causes the original to become completely transformed. Taking these steps is important in Kasper's work: through the interplay between the existing image and the transformation into a painting he explores the memory, atmosphere and energy contained within them through this process.
In the case of his collective performative works, everything often begins with a set of rules. However, when executing a performance, neither his group nor the viewer knows what will happen next. The exact direction a performance will take is determined through the spontaneous reactions between performer and audience. Sometimes the public takes the instruments they use to play and fully participate, shaping every performance to be totally unique. In some occasions, an installation is built to offer a literal framework or setting for a performance to take place.
"We once made a Covid-proof stage. The audience had to crawl underneath it to get to a good viewpoint of the band. There were holes in the stage with domes on top, so that you could watch the performance up close but still abide by Covid safety measures. We also transformed an exhibition space into a football field once, just to be the band that plays the halftime show. Whether or not we build something really depends on the context, we try to think of something new for each show.”
During the Rizoom takeover, Kasper will open up his studio and show an overview of previous works, as well as sketches for both past and upcoming shows. We can expect a daily painting, and maybe something extra in the stories too.