Curtain Call

Karon Davis brings to life historical and allegorical figures in her signature white, wrapped plaster sculptures. Immersed in her parents’ worlds of theater and ballet as a child, Davis’ installations merge memory and scenes from the stage with historical events, mythology, and ongoing socio-political concerns. Taking up topics ranging from environmental disasters to the Civil Rights Movement, Davis shows us how politics, history, and myth are all performances that live in our collective imaginations.

For the High Line, Davis creates a larger-than-life bronze portrait of a ballerina taking her final bow after a performance. Using a combination of 3D scanning technology and traditional sculpting techniques, the bronze figure was derived from Davis’ life-size plaster cast sculpture of ballerina Jasmine Perry. The work is an homage to Davis’ parents and sister, all of whom were professional dancers. Curtain Call draws on the artist’s experience growing up on stage and behind the scenes of the dance and theater world, seeing firsthand the incredible mental and physical toll taken to create a flawless performance. The work is part of a new series, Beauty Must Suffer, which examines the life and labor of Black dancers in the historically European tradition of ballet. Davis’ sculptures trace the ballerina’s pursuit of perfect form, from their first encounter with the barre to their final bow—theatrically presenting their bodies as a vessel for performative storytelling. As Curtain Call’s ballerina kneels forward, she reveals a bouquet of roses, a traditional gift of appreciation given by admiring fans after a ballet. Staged on the Lawn at 23rd Street, Curtain Call is forever frozen in reverence to her audience, transforming the architecture of the High Line itself into a stage.