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Becca Kauffman
I am a socially inclined artist in Portland, Oregon practicing art as a public utility through interactive performance, devised gatherings, and neighborhood interventions. My work has taken the form of an unsanctioned artist residency in Times Square, a public access television show, T-shirts functioning as conversation pieces, DJ sets, music videos, choreographed stage shows, original pop music under the moniker Jennifer Vanilla co-created with NYC producer and technologist Brian Abelson, a pedestrian parade with a group of fifth grade crossing guards, a comprehensive artistic campaign to get a crosswalk painted in Queens, and installing myself as Unofficial Mall Artist at Lloyd Center in Portland.
All my projects are catalogued at beccakauffman.net.
Jennifer Vanilla’s take on Mickey Mouse, if Mickey Mouse were the devil. Escapism is ok as long as we eventually come back, right? Jennifer and Its Angels, performed at a music concert opening for !!! at Elsewhere, Brooklyn, 2021. With dancers Ry Eshel and Jo Warren.
Souvenirs for the Jennifer Vanilla experience, thrift store-sourced and hand-lettered since 2016. The full catalog lives here.
Social Souvenir Hotline with Jenny V. on The Lot Radio, Times Square, NYC 2021. A live hybrid radio show incorporating performance, spoken word, a DJ set, and an interview with a local resident named Clarence.
Social Souvenirs, 2021. A project in which the souvenir is the socializing itself, manifested in a T-shirt gifted to the recipient in exchange for a conversation.