Something of Three is an immersive video and sculpture installation exhibited at the Freight Gallery (Washington, DC) in 2022. The work explores the relationship between myth, reality and the journey that connects the two. The viewer is invited into a small space, a functioning historic freight elevator temporarily transformed into a gallery, and immersed in a journey reminiscent of the winding path of a children’s board game.

In a projected video, reflection on animal migration inspire the artist to traverse an imaginary course in a desert landscape. Without apparent destination, the artist makes her way around reflecting puddles and large piles of stones. Along this path are moments woven together to create a palette of familiar and sometimes fictional scenes. These symbolisms build to create a push/pull of enticement and repulsion while the continuation of time spins and weaves its patterns.

Something of Three, video 14min 45 sec, 2022

Installation includes: fresh oranges, antique wooden school chair/desk, archery arrows, sweet orange essential oil

Music: Michael Benish

Voice: Dawn Whitmore

This work was featured in Hyperallergic (November 27, 2023).

The Initiation is a sculptural/choral/performance piece that premiered on November 18, 2017 at the Georgetown Waterfront Park Labyrinth in Washington, DC. Four singers performed a 12 minute work that combines voice and glockenspiel keys to delve into a mythical narrative inspired by the underworld. This is the first of a four part production. The music was integrated into a life sized hut-like structure comprised of hand-built wooden ladders. The story and sculpture are by Dawn Whitmore, with the music by Stephen Gorbos. Performed by Deborah Sternberg, Rachel Evangeline Barham, Allison Clendaniel, and Shauna Kreidler Michels.

The imagery within my paintings and drawings is drawn from imagination, medieval landscape and bestiary paintings, and elements of contemporary culture. Creatures and forms weave together in strange landscapes. Play and humor offset what are otherwise uncertain and daunting paths.

Press clips and interviews

Human Nature is a video and sculpture installation that reflects on our relationship with nature. As the climate and natural world changes, our behaviors and relationships to nature are also changing. This installation was at the Hillyer Art Space in Washington, DC, February 2024.

This work is about calling out to nature in hopes of finding familiarity and reconnecting with ourselves and our environment. The installation blends a mix of humorous fairytale adventure and themes that prompt us to reflect on our ability to rewrite the old myth of how we engage and inhabit the natural world, into one that is more holistically evolved. 

Sugary confection marshmallows are used in the sculptures to represent lost knowledge to the natural world and in this case, medicinal herbs. Marshmallow is a marshy plant whose roots have long been used for medicinal properties.  The plant was used as a demulcent and treatment for burns in herbal traditions dating back to ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. It wasn't until the late 1800's that it was manufactured as a sweet treat and sold for enjoyment. During this time it was discovered that using gelatin from animal bones was less expensive and easier than harvest than the plant itself. 

Human Nature, video, 10min 56 sec, 2024. 

Installation includes: video projection, soundscape, sculptures, 13' tree branch. 

The Raven Meets the Hornbill is a multimedia project that tells the story of Rukha, a remote sub-tropical village in the mountains of Bhutan. With personal stories from local villagers and field recorded audio from the forest, a narrative-based sound and video installation is woven to transport the audience into the enchanting land of Bhutan. 

This project was funded by an Artist Fellowship Program Grant from the Commission on the Arts and Humanities of District of Columbia in 2019. 

A house is like a mind that holds everything is a 5-channel immersive sound installation that examines the relationship between mental space and reality. In a constructed room that reads as a simple domestic residence, the artist’s voice, reading from various classical texts, emanates from multiple points and moves in and out of audibility. Using sound as form, the artist creates two overlapping experiences of space. If the physical space of the installation provides the experience of entering an individual’s private living environment, the soundscape acts as an entry point into their mental and emotional reality. While the physical environment remains static, the artist invites participants to follow the work’s soundscape through time, moving from uncertainty to clarity. Presenting these two overlapping experiences of reality, Whitmore asks how they shape and form one another, suggesting that our physical environment impacts our mental and emotional understanding, but also that individuals can draw on their own intellectual and personal fantasies in order to shape their experience of the outside world. 

Soundtrack/voice: Dawn Whitmore