Respawn

D. D. D. D. is also pleased to present, Respawn, a new series of work by writing artist Will Kaplan. This will be the artist’s first exhibition with the gallery. In Respawn, Kaplan explores the boundaries between the virtual and the real through the subjects of videogames as well as that of the cyborg body. In the work, videogames are processed as a technology which envelops one into simulations: where the human yields itself to a designed world. Inversely, with the element of assemblage, the work invokes cyborg bodies with artificial extensions that physically protrude outwards in space to meet the world beyond the mere depictive surface. Beyond merely signifying the body, the physicality of Kaplan’s work also acts to orientate the viewer in space. Their angled surfaces act as screens not unlike those we interface with daily, that of smartphones, televisions, and desktops. Despite their two dimensionality, these are objects which have over time began to dictate our aesthetic milieu, movement, and bodies. Each technology creates a specific mode of attention and has its own choreography (leaning, gazing, staring, lazing, bowing, reaching). This softly, or forcefully, imposed choreography by Kaplan’s work undergirds the work in the exhibition. In turn, the works act as allegories on the agency of the viewer as a participant in these technologies. Artist and writer Will Kaplan collages found images with observational drawings to probe boundaries between people and their surroundings. After graduating from Skidmore College in 2017, Kaplan has lived and worked in Queens. His exhibition reviews have been published in Two Coats of Paint, Artpsiel, and Copy. His work has appeared at Spring/Break Art Fair, the New Art Dealers Alliance, and Pete’s Candy Store. He has staged several solo shows including Remergency at Bob’s Gallery (2023), StoryRots on Governors Island, and Both Sides Now (2024) at Living Skin.