2019, Variable, Media: Earthenware / Terracotta, Mixed Media, Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Surface: Glazed, Non-ceramic
Curb consists of three ceramic curbs placed in a yard surrounded by an interactive meadow of utility flags. Half of the utility flags are plastic and the others are handmade paper pennants with native grass seeds embedded. One can interact by sharing a memory to preserve and/or make a wish to let go. The paper flags will eventually disintegrate, leaving grass behind to grow while the plastic markers will remain. A collaboration with Kate Pszotka.
2010, Variable, Media: Colored porcelain, Non-clay, Firing Process: Electric, Surface: Unglazed
2019, Variable, Media: Porcelain, Firing Process: Raku, Surface: Glazed
2016, Variable, Media: Colored porcelain, Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Surface: Glazed, Unglazed
Detail photo of the installation.
2016, Variable, Media: Mixed Media, Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Surface: Glazed, Unglazed
The series TV: 333 N 5th St., references the important people we cherish and the powerful impact of their contributions as well as the memories that we hold and take with us. The viewer is invited to take a small memento with them in exchange for honoring that person by signing the service call book located on the pedestal.
2020, Variable, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Surface: Glazed, Non-ceramic
Clay.Felt.Abstraction is a series of small ceramic works with felt bases that playfully poke at the absurdity of abstraction through the use of humor. The needle-felt bases provide contrast as well as protection and teasingly conceal the process of making.
2022, Variable, Media: Porcelain, Firing Process: Raku, Surface: Glazed, Unglazed
2019, Variable, Media: Mixed Media, Non-clay, Porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Surface: Glazed
What does it mean to create a visual map of memory or location? What does it mean to recall past projects in relation to borders from objects and their connection to time like lines on a map? What happens when the memory changes over time? How do the memories and materials collide in this conjoined space?
2022, Variable, Media: Colored porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Surface: Glazed, Unglazed
Detail of C, A, L, and Sometimes M Series.
2022, Variable, Media: Colored porcelain, Firing Process: Electric, Surface: Glazed, Unglazed
Artist Statement
My artwork tends to comment on, if not examine, aspects of memory, identity, class, and environmental issues. Important questions about how we remember, what we choose to forget, how authentic these memories are, and why memory connects to one’s topographical environment are considerations in the work.
A common practice is a connection of memory to objects and the use of the casting process. One interesting idea about the replication of objects through the casting process is the displacement of the real object and its simulacra. The casting process enables the memory of the original object to carry through but simultaneously competes with the original object’s authenticity and authorship. As an object maker, I am captivated by the notion of objects alluding to memories and the participatory dialogue that can evolve with the viewers. By the activity of making and casting a variety of objects can the banal/everyday become special but inextricably universal? Does this transform or elevate the everyday? And could this action function in reverse with a unique or significant object?
Bio
Christine Rabenold is a Chicago-based artist and an associate professor of Art at North Central College, where she served as the Coordinator of the Art Department from 2013-2017 and as the Chair of Art and Design from 2017-2022. Additionally, she served as the Student Gallery Director from 2009 until 2019. She teaches a variety of courses in ceramics, sculpture, three-dimensional design, advanced studies, and senior planning and exhibition capstone, and co-led a December Abroad Seminar Course, Art and Memory in Italy with Classics professor Michael de Brauw from 2014-2018. Christine received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Tyler School of Art/Temple University and a Master of Fine Arts degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She was born in Lehighton, Pennsylvania.