Jasmine Dreame Wagner

Jasmine Dreame Wagner is an inter-disciplinary artist, poet, and musician. Her work investigates the hidden narratives of manmade landmarks: abandoned industrial areas, vacant lots, fences of wildlife refuges, decommissioned military structures, exurban space that has fallen into disuse. Using a variety of mediums including photo series, drawing, ritual performance, and texts including poems and short prose forms, Jasmine’s work explores the shadowy pockets of the post-industrial landscape and the natural life that persists in the face of environmental degradation and decay. She holds a BA from Columbia University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana.

Jasmine also performs and records folk and experimental music as Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. Her third album, Blue Highways, will be released by For Arbors / For Satellites in Fall 2010. Cabinet has performed at the CMJ Music Marathon, the Olympia Experimental Music Festival, free103point9’s Wave Farm, and Missoula, Montana’s New Lakes Poetry Reading Series.

During my residency at Kultuuritehas Polymer, I will continue work on RegistersVanishing, a collection of site-specific poems, short prose pieces, and sound compositions. I will also perform twice during Culture Factory Festival 2010. On August 24, I will read from Registers Vanishing and from my most recent chapbook of poems,Charcoal, during Polymer's drawing marathon. On August 27, I will perform music fromRegisters Vanishing and from my most recent album, Searchlight Needles, at Diletantide Avangard.

In addition to drafting new texts and performing, I will use this opportunity to visit the site of the former Soviet military base at Paldiski, to observe the architecture and wildlife of the area, record the organic and machine-made sounds of the environment, and use these images and recordings in new compositions. I am also looking forward to speaking with the artists and art-lovers who run the Polymer space, along with members of Tallinn 's artistic community, about the use of images in their work and in their personal and communal identities.

http://www.songsaboutghosts.com http://www.cabinetofnaturalcuriosities.com