Christine Foerster, Multimedia Visual Artist

Foerster works in a variety of media including textiles, performance, and sculptural installation. Her most recent work alters public spaces with modular and mobile structures made from green technologies that encourage interaction and exchange with her audience. Foerster received a MFA in Visual Arts and a MA in Latin American Studies from the University of California at San Diego. She has exhibited at national and international venues and festivals such as MIND THE GAP in Istanbul, the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, Conflux Festival of Art and Technology in New York City, Version 8 Fest in Chicago, and Estación Tijuana in Mexico. In addition to her art practice, Foerster is faculty at the University of Texas at El Paso Art Department.
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Artist Statement
I am a visual artist who temporarily alters public spaces with modular and mobile structures that encourage interaction and exchange with my participatory audience. In 2005, I designed a medium called Shell-ter-wear, based on modules made of fabric lined with alternating snaps, light weight collapsible tent poles and hand-crafted connector units. The Shell-ter-wear modules easily shift from personalized garments to a wide array of temporary shelters. This fluid shifting from garment to shelter allows participants to reevaluate the separation between private and public spaces, the relationship between identity and space, and our role within the earth's eco-system.
In my current work, I use sculpture, installation, performance and gardening to create interactive objects of use and exchange which intend to leave a memorable, sensorial experience about local food with the audience. I situate my work in the outer limits of art practice and environmentalism such that my interactive installations feed from "sustain-able" agriculture practices. Ultimately, my goal as an artist is to create interactive art installations based on green design principles that highlight do-it-yourself agriculture technologies in the hopes that they will encourage more individual initiative to support local food production.