Chris Christion: A Context for Transcendence
Chris Christion: A Context for Transcendence
Opening reception: Saturday, September 8th, 2018, 7-10 PM On view until October 20th Gallery hours Sat & Sun 1-4 beginning Sept 15th “When you can express and articulate what’s happening to you, you have a measure of transcendence over it. It gives you speech, it gives you self-definition and when you have self-definition and not defined by the world then you transcend”. – James H. Cone Black Liberation Theology, a theological perspective that can be traced back to the 60’s was adopted among African American seminarians and scholars who asserted that a God who values justice over victimization is on the side of the oppressed (i.e. the poor, the suffering, and the outcast) not the oppressor. They asserted that not only is God's deliverance for the oppressed and not the oppressor, but that his liberation applied to material world and not the spiritual world. Christion contends that identity is similar in that it exists both within and beyond a fixed understanding; simultaneously pervading and surpassing definition. Therefore, transcendence is not liberation from oppression upon death but rather it is the manifestation of self-definition and self-affirmation in the physical world. A Context for Transcendence is a multi media installation exploring the closed-door negotiation of cultural value and narratives established by colonial incursion and Eurocentric projections of nonwhite identity. Christion investigates the historical connections between cultural speculation, myth creation, the dissemination of the images, and rhetoric that define Christian and colonial rule. Using the framework of the stained glass windows Christion presents a collage of re-appropriated film montages playing simultaneously in the same frame to creates a kaleidoscopic effect. The collages are developed from clips of films containing pseudo-ethnographic representation such as the The Gods Must Be Crazy film series and those with metaphorical racist undertones like the various King Kong films. The ever-changing perspectives dislocate the viewer with an overconsumption of incongruent representational imagery highlighting the implicit biases within their gaze. A Context for Transcendence provides the conditions for viewers to reconsider how one defines their experienced identity at variance with the way in which social and cultural identity is institutionally articulated. Chris Christion received his MFA from the University of California, Irvine, and his BFA from the University of Oklahoma. Christion has exhibited throughout the US and Europe including the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, Chaffey College’s Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art, and the University of Dortmund, Germany. His work also appears in the critically acclaimed 2005 feature film Me, You, and Everyone We Know. In 2015 he began a series of curatorial projects with artist/curator Jessica Wimbley contextualizing the visual arts within “biomythography”. Defined by Audre Lorde in her seminal piece Zami: A New Spelling of My Name Name as “combining elements of history, biography and myth biomythography has been known to shape theories of intersectionality and highlight the idea of internal, external, and multiple selves. As an artist and curator Christion is intrigued by the interconnected and multifaceted link of biomythography across disciplines, particularly in the visual arts. In addition to art Christion served as gallery and collections manager for the Claremont Graduate University for several years. He has also worked as assistant coordinator for UC Irvine Libraries Department of Education and Outreach which focused on Information Literacy and Visual Literacy instruction for teachers and students in high‐risk school districts. His passion for art, education, and multi-disciplinary programing complimented by a hybrid of experiences in the arts, teaching, and art administration has aided in developing practice that integrates practical skills with historical research, visual archiving, and community awareness. Christion currently lives and works in Sacramento, CA.
