Headlands Center for the Arts

Artist Statement

I am an artist working across mediums with an emphasis on performance, film, and sculpture. Equal parts physical and psychological, my performances question perceptions of authenticity, creating works that hinge upon reality and simulation. My performance and sculpture highlight materiality, while making allusions to film, ritual, and folk traditions. Each performance is an event meant to negate passivity both in the performer and audience. I aim to awaken the performer and the observer to their lived-body. While my work incorporates complex narratives and customs, at its core it exists out of a desire to subjugate people’s indifference and cynicism. 

While at Headlands

The Headlands is an enchanting place, one that is fertile ground for material that presents an opportunity for mediating communication with those who have encountered this special landscape. While a Graduate Fellow, I plan to create site-specific performances, sculptures, and films in the limitlessness of the Headlands, while maintaining a practice that is socially engaged and rooted in community enrichment. I expect to revel in the vast physical space, and anticipate that my work will be altered within the varied terrain, creating new physical challenges allowing me to rethink the tableau.

Selected Video

Whitney Vangrin in collaboration with Christopher McDonald, “Mother of Vinegar,” 2016-17; video performance and sound composition, 2:01 excerpt of 31:19 video

Whitney Vangrin, “Lattice Shell,” 2022; 5:37 excerpt of 35:20 video.