Claire Christerson
Through the Window Up the Stairs
January 25 - March 21, 2020
Opening Reception
Saturday, January 25, 2020
6 - 9 pm
AA|LA is pleased to present Claire Christerson: Through the Window Up the Stairs, an exhibition exploring the vivid and distinct stages of emotion that transpire through childhood. Combining video, painting, and ceramics, Through the Window Up the Stairsportrays a dynamic world of whimsy and malaise through the experiences of adolescence.
The installation is inspired byChristerson’s early memories of running through their grandmother’s house, encountering various family members along the way. Like characters in a video game, Christerson’s use of these intimate recollections navigates and explores individual personas within a fabricated environment.
The exhibition centers around Through Angel’s Eyes, a film presenting a group of characters forming their own familial unit. This world is perceived through Angel, who observes and absorbs the moods of the other characters. Similar to the format of a comic book, Christerson’s intense and often extreme personalities are set into motion with little dialogue. Throughout the film, the characters interact through creative and nuanced movement to present the scope of their emotions. Each vignette is distinct yet energetically linked, evoking the simultaneous sense of separation and connection between individuals that occurs when forming a sense of self.
Works on paper and ceramics accompany the film. The paintings are a study of how to portray emotion through figure. They have subsequently expanded in complexity, becoming layered collages that also function similarly to comic book panels. In conjunction with the paintings, the walled ceramic works coalesce to form an abstracted home for the viewer to navigate. These playful and animated inventions of personality evoke a deeper sense of emotional processing – one that challenges the interpersonal relationships that dictate structures of self-expression.
Claire Christerson is a multimedia artist living and working in New York City. They received their BFA in photography from School of Visual Arts in 2015. Special thanks to the cast of the film Kellian Delice, Olimpia Dior, Hayden Dunham, Mariko Makino, Bobbi Salvor Menuez, Alexsandra Severino, Daya Soudan, Vanessa Soudan, and Quori Theodor. Thank you to Madeline Billings, Sean-Kierre Lyons, Greta Klein, Jefferey Rose, Tim Schutsky, Daniel Sharp, Alon Sicherman, Vanessa Soudan, Clara Warnaar, and Red Hook Labs.