"I call it 'Crack Dance'," Bianca Casady says of a psychedelic collage she's made with images of a unicorn and drug paraphernalia, which, starting tonight, will be on display at Deitch Projects along with myriad other medium-spanning pieces of her own creation. In her first solo show and what is essentially her visual art coming-out party, one half of CocoRosie (which she fronts with her sister, Sierra) is showing off her less famous artistic talents. "It's really a survey of self expression," Deitch director Nicola Vassell says of Lil Girl Slim: "Cosmic Willingness" Pipe Dreamz A Revelation, which will be up for two weeks, culminating in a live CocoRosie performance on October 19. Casady may not have the kind of résumé that is usually a prerequisite to art stardom, but somehow the "ten-year fragmented trail" that led to the show makes one seem unnecessary.

Most people only know you for your music. How long have you been involved in the visual arts?

I've been doing this my whole life, really, definitely longer than music. Writing, doing fashion, drawing pictures. Music has really been an entry point for all of my other art.

So you've tried your hand at pretty much everything. Are all of these things represented in the exhibit?

I feel like every medium in art is happening here. And I don't feel like it's chaotic. It's just like the way it happens in real life—you see color, two-dimensional objects, trees. It's like walking down the street, just a little more extreme, like a hyperreal-life scenario.

Is doing a live show at the end of the project part of creating this "hyperreal-life scenario?"

I felt like performing inside the space was the final stage of making it come to life. I approached it the same way I do my own living space. Whenever I move, I immediately customize my space. Everything that is happening is very personal.

Are there any unifying undercurrents, any themes, that run through your life and consequently through the show as well?

It's a playground for controversy. I guess that's the overlying thread. With lots of religious iconography and a lot of symbols of a different era braiding together, just like in CocoRosie's lyrics. It's a lot about finding fantasy in everyday items—things that typically struggle with each other, things that can be really hostile, are presented in a beautiful way.

You have no formal training, so you're basically self-taught, right?

My mother is an artist and was also a teacher. And I was a very early dropout who was given a lot of freedom—she gave me my own section of her studio, so I felt very nurtured. But I was very uneducated, so I refrained from joining the art world.

So why choose to join it now?

I really just walk through doors in a very faded way—not accidentally but intuitively. And this door just kind of flew open. Music has been a mysterious porthole for me.

Why did you choose to make music your thing when you obviously have so much talent in so many different areas?

Music and fashion were the only areas I felt free to enter the media and not have to encounter all of the hierarchy and elitism of the art world. Fashion has always been my primary form of expression—I've been working with vinyl, sequins, and sewing machines since I was 12. I got to dollar stores all over the world in an attempt to understand my own myth, which is in constant flux. The idea of working on your self-image has always been my first step and one of the strong aspects of CocoRosie. I'm constantly challenging myself.