Kaspar Schmidt Mumm: ROCKAMORA

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 harassment, discrimination, and oppression.

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.

Born in Göttingen, Germany and raised in Adelaide with Colombian, Pakistani and Canadian heritage, Kaspar Schmidt Mumm’s (b. 1990) motivation to make art stems from his experience of displacement and desire to develop an artistic language that crosses cultural borders. 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. 

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. Using large scale puppetry, live music, costume and performance the collectives create systems for intersectionality through performance and pedagogy.

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.

Schmidt Mumm is the 2023 recipient of the Porter Street Commission – ACE’s annual award worth $20,000 supporting new artwork commissions by South Australian artists.

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Socially-engaged art practice

Socially engaged art is process-driven and participatory. The artwork is often made in and for public spaces, and engages communities and audiences in real-world political or social issues. Socially engaged art practices differ from studio practice in approach and outcomes, valuing audience collaboration in artwork creation and participation in its activation.

ROCKAMORA (the exhibition) proffers change in the systems that provoke oppressive human behaviours through sharing resources and skills. The exhibition features a site specific, participatory sculpture - a puppet called ‘Rockamora’.

ROCKAMORA draws on the evidence of restorative practices, a field within the social sciences that offers strategies for repairing relationships between individuals and strengthening social connection within communities [1]. Distinguished from the exhibition and its form as a puppet, Rockamora (the character) is a bully antagonist in need of understanding and care. The audience is invited to enter into a relationship with ‘Rockamora’ and partake in acts of care (feeding, cleaning, playing with) as part of a restorative process.

At the heart of restorative practices is recognition of everyone's inherent worth and the value of our connections with one another. Commonly used in schools during crisis as a tool for repairing harm that is caused by bullying, restorative practices proactively nurture meaningful and just communities. [2]

Schmidt Mumm positions Rockamora as a bully, describing them as a ‘thug’ and naming them after their mother’s primary school bully. Bullying is often seen as an act of aggression or conquest. However, Schmidt Mumm asks his audience to separate Rockamora’s thug-like behaviour from the character, and instead approach them with empathy and compassion.

While restorative practices ask individuals to be accountable for their behaviour and to repair any harm that their actions have caused others, it also promotes preventative interventions including learning about self regulation through actively learning and practising social-emotional skills.

Schmidt Mumm explains that in his experience “bullies are often individuals who have experienced trauma, neglect, or abuse in their own lives and have not received the help and support they need to heal from these experiences." [3]

This approach recognises that creating a safe space to share and be vulnerable in offering and accepting care is vital to restoration within relationships. ROCKAMORA reflects this restorative approach in both its conceptual foundation and in its collaborative creation and activation.

This education resource was written by Alise Hardy.

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.