Opening Night: ROCKAMORA

Celebrate the opening night of ROCKAMORA by Kaspar Schmidt Mumm – the 2023 Porter Street Commission.

Doors open at 5.30pm; Welcome to Country and speeches start at 6.15pm; followed by a special live performance by The Bait Fridge in collaboration with Slowmango.

The bar will be stocked by ACE's drink sponsors, Charlotte Dalton Wines and Bowden Brewing.

The event will be Auslan interpreted.

About the exhibition

ROCKAMORA is the first major gallery exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Kaspar Schmidt Mumm, expanding the artist’s fascination with puppetry as a tool for social change. Named after his mother’s primary school bully, ‘Rockamora’ is a thug taking a bath in the gallery. By feeding, cleaning and caring for this bully, ROCKAMORA encourages us to empathise with a larger-than-life, misunderstood antagonist as a way to counter lived experiences of harassment and discrimination.

Influenced by his mother’s own art therapy programs in hospitals, aged care and community centres, Schmidt Mumm’s practice is based in a belief in the rehabilitative qualities of art. The exhibition builds upon Schmidt Mumm’s experimentation with absurdist and comical forms of art-making that feature fantastical representations of other worldly beings.

Now in its fifth iteration, ‘Rockamora’ is a large-scale, interactive puppet that invites audiences to guide and animate tasks such as eating, brushing its teeth, cleaning its ears and other daily habits.

Over the course of the exhibition Schmidt Mumm will collaborate with members of performance art collective The Bait Fridge and six piece music ensemble Slowmango to create space for public events that blur the lines of community gathering, ceremony and protest. Both groups are known for creating boundary pushing live shows and immersive experiences that bring together hyper-colourful costumes, spontaneous performance and entrancing musical explorations.

With a welcoming spirit, ROCKAMORA encourages play and participation, enlivening the gallery space through shared activity.

About the artist

Born in Germany and raised in Adelaide with Colombian, Pakistani and Canadian heritage, Kaspar Schmidt Mumm’s motivation to make art stems from his experience of displacement and desire to develop an artistic language that crosses cultural borders.

In addition to his individual practice, Schmidt Mumm is one of the founders of  performance art collective The Bait Fridge and lead vocalist of Slowmango. He is currently studying a Masters focused on the intersection of contemporary art and social work at the Institute for Art in Context, Universität der Künste Berlin.

Previous exhibitions include: Wiping Vatman’s Tears, Sauerbier House, Adelaide, 2022; The Multiverse, Bundoora Homestead, Melbourne, 2021; and IMMI, Seventh Gallery, Melbourne, 2019. Schmidt Mumm has also performed as part of Dark MOFO (Hobart), Darwin Festival and The Lab (Adelaide), and delivered workshops with the Gunbalanya community in Arnhem Land.

Kaspar Schmidt Mumm is the 2023 recipient of the Porter Street Commission – ACE’s annual award supporting new artwork commissions by South Australian artists.

Presented as part of the South Australian Living Artists (SALA) Festival.

This project is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and the South Australian Government through Arts South Australia.