Looming Voyage is an evolving and mobile loom that traveled through Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain and the U.S., changing shape with each location. It consists of eight creation-meditations which involved weaving into the loom colorful textiles and messages about mending from those who passed by.
Looming Voyage was a traveling participant of To Do, a mending project at 1805 gallery in October 2018 in San Diego, California. Through Instagram posts and documentation, Looming Voyage joined the ongoing dialogue about mending and repair that the To Do project facilitated.
Glider Port, La Jolla, CA, August 28, 2018. Photo by Sol De Piérola
Mending near Snæfellsjökull glacier at Hellner, Sept. 5, 2018. Photos by Sol De Piérola and Christine Foerster
Mending under The Couple by Louise Bourgeois at Ekebergparken in Oslo, Norway, Sept. 13, 2018. Photos by Sol De Piérola and Christine Foerster
Mending at Café Slusen in the South Harbor, Copenhagen.
Mending at Blatterwiese in Zurich, Sept. 28, 2018. Photos by Sol De Piérola and Christine Foerster
Mending near at Sempione Park, October. 4, 2018. Photos by José De Piérola and Christine Foerster
Mending at Place Saint-Médard, 5e arrondissement, in Paris on October 13, 2018. Photos by José De Piérola
Mending “En un lugar de la Mancha…” Mota del Cuervo, Oct. 20, 2018. Photos by Fuensanta Zarco-Cobo, Sol De Piérola and Christine Foerster
Mending at Little Italy in San Diego, November 4, 2018. Photos by José De Piérola
Art.hro.poda: shell is a traveling series of movement-meditations beginning in Oceanside, California. In each Art.hro.poda: shell movement-meditation, her shell will acquire more forms, functions and expressive qualities as she adapts to each environment while carrying the traces of where she has already been.
Inspired by the adaptive features developed by arthropods over thousands of years, Art.hro.poda relies on a multilayered, modular suit that morphs, detaches and reconfigures as she moves from one environment to the next. Art.hro.poda is based on Shell-tear-wear. Conceived as a continually evolving medium to explore form, Shell-tear-wear breaks down into small components easy to transport, but which expand into dynamic, temporary structures with endless possibilities. I have used versions of this medium in six international street performances.
Art.hro.poda: shell is generously funded by a Rachelle Thiewes Department of Art Faculty Endowment and DoART through the University of Texas at El Paso.
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by Leland Foerster
Photo by Leland Foerster
Photo by Leland Foerster
Photo by Leland Foerster
Photo by Leland Foerster
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Art.hro.poda: araña atrapasueños was presented as two performance-installations as part of Larco Vive, a public art initiative sponsored by la Municipalidad de Miraflores in Lima, Peru, and supported by AIBAL (Asociacion Iberoamericana de Artes y Letras).
In this most recent public intervention, Art.hro.poda built a spider web while in movement along Larco Avenue. At the final resting point, the public was asked to write a wish on a ribbon and attach it to the web.
Inspired by the adaptive features developed by arthropods over thousands of years, Art.hro.poda relies on a multilayered, modular suit that morphs, detaches and reconfigures as she moves from one environment to the next.
Art.hro.poda uses Shell-tear-wear, © 2005 by Christine Foerster.
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by Sun Cok
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Art.hro.poda: eksfoliere was presented as three interactive street performances in Aabenraa, Tinglev and Padborg as part of Aabenraa Artweek. Inspired by the adaptive features developed by arthropods over thousands of years, Art.hro.poda relies on a multilayered, modular suit that morphs, detaches and reconfigures as she moves from one environment to the next.
In each Art.hro.poda: eksfoliere performance, she exfoliated her outer layer, and, eliciting participation from the public, constructed a temporary refuge as an offering to the public space.
Art.hro.poda uses Shell-ter-wear © Christine Foerster, 2005.
Artweek Aabenraa, 2013 was organized by Anne Lildholdt Jensen, Markus Johannes Herschbach, Gabriele Beismann and Martin Jensen. Curated by Anna Ankerstjerne and Andreas Becker.
Photo by Nanna Jenson
Photo by Nanna Jenson
Photo by Nanna Jenson
Photo by Nanna Jenson
Photo by Gabriele Beismann
Photo by Gabriele Beismann
Photo by Nanna Jenson
Photo by Nanna Jenson
Photo by Nanna Jenson
Krebsdyr / Crustacean was presented as part of Aabenraa Artweek. Using a giant parachute and imitating the movements of crustaceans, we traveled across the Sønderstrand beach with choreographed call and response movements until we molted our outer skin to build temporary installation. Performance collaborators were Janis Herschbach, Fanny Jensen and Nanna Jensen.
Krebsdyr / Crustacean uses Shell-ter-wear, © 2005 by Christine Foerster.
Artweek Aabenraa, 2013 was organized by Anne Lildholdt Jensen, Markus Johannes Herschbach, Gabriele Beismann and Martin Jensen. Curated by Anna Ankerstjerne and Andreas Becker.
Photo by Katrine Jørgensen
Photo by Markus Johannes Herschbach
Photo by Katrine Jørgensen
Photo by Katrine Jørgensen
Photo by Katrine Jørgensen
Photo by Katrine Jørgensen
Goatwalking is a multi-media public art project that invited El Paso residents on 14 walks with goats. Goatwalking is not only a story about 2 goats (+3 goat-kids) that live in the urban environment of El Paso but it's also the story of many El Pasoans who are actively working on projects to reshape this city and bring some positive changes. These voices will be connected through the 14 goatwalks documented on the goatwalking.com website, video and 14 watercolor drawings made from the GPS maps of each goatwalk.
Goatwalking intends to engage directly with the beauty and the harshness of the urban-desert landscape through a disruption of human navigation patterns with an animal that thrives in this environment. Rather than following a pre-scripted route, each walk will be negotiated first by the participant (we will agree on a starting point that resonates with that person's passions or work), and later by the goats who dictate a lot about each walk. Goatwalking is about surrendering a human-centered desire for control.
Why goats? Although this may seem outrageous in these times of overabundance and careless consumption, we could survive for quite a while as foragers if we had a milking goat. That is a tremendous relationship between human and animal. Humans and goats are supreme walkers, when given the chance. We see, hear and smell so many more details by foot than we ever could by car.
Photo by Christine Foerster
Photo by Christine Foerster
Photo by Christine Foerster
Photo by Christine Foerster
Photo by Christine Foerster
Photo by Leland Foerster
Fish.taco.ponic is a mobile, living art installation growing many of the ingredients to make fish tacos. By showing one instance of a symbiotic relationship found in nature that is beneficial to fish and plants, fish.taco.ponic explores a sustainable alternative for local food production in desert climates where water is scarce, but it also raises awareness about how food is produced and processed before reaching the table.
Fish.taco.ponic.I took place on June, 2011 at Glasbox in downtown El Paso. With a minimum, but wide variety of ingredients, avid cook, Robert Ardovino and Christine Foerster served up a "fresh" take on fish tacos.
Fish.taco.ponic.II was integrated into the art and science curriculum of La Fe Preparatory School in Segundo Barrio, where during fall, 2011, the fifth graders raised and cared for the fish and plants.
For the opening night reception of Fish.taco.ponic.III, Robert Ardovino and a group of the La Fe Preparatory School fifth graders harvested 14 tilapia and prepared mini fish tacos for tasting at the UTEP Faculty Biennial on January 26th at the Rubin Center.
Fish.taco.ponic was made possible by an Idea Fund Grant and an Artist Incubator grant from the Museum and Cultural Affairs Department of El Paso. Special thanks to: Robert Ardovino and Ardovino's Desert Crossing, La Fe Preparatory School, Damon Seawright, Sasha Pimentel, DIY Aquaponics Forum, Juan Ferret, Eric Pearson, Dean and Marisela Bannon, Norma Ojeda and José de Piérola
Photo by Christine Foerster
Photo by Christine Foerster
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by Christine Foerster
Photo by Leland Foerster
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by Christine Foerster
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by José de Piérola
Photo by Christine Foerster
Art.hro.poda: pul pul dökmek was presented as four interactive street performances in Istanbul as part of the Project Mind the Gap Exhibition. Inspired by the adaptive features developed by arthropods over thousands of years, Art.hro.poda relies on a multilayered, modular suit that morphs, detaches and reconfigures as she moves from one environment to the next.
In each Art.hro.poda: pul pul dökmek performance, she exfoliated her outer layer, refashioned it into a resting pod and vacated it temporarily as an offering to the public space. The performances include both Art.hro.poda's exfoliation and the public's engagement with the vacated pods.
Project Mind the Gap was curated by Alexia Mellor and co-organized with Michelle Dunn.
Art.hro.poda uses Shell-tear-wear, © 2005 by Christine Foerster.
Zen buddhist teachings describe "mu" as nothing, emptiness, non-being, or even pure human awareness prior to knowledge and experience. It also refers to a lost continent in the midst of the Pacific Ocean, and a fictional place. Mu.Shroom.City asks the audience to think about the invisible social fabric that connects us but is often as invisible as the mycelium that runs under the earth's surface, creating a network of cells that only becomes apparent with the fruiting of mushrooms.
Mu.shroom.city invites participants to establish connections across the urban expanse of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso by either caring for living mushroom vessels in strategic locations, along train lines, within historic buildings and elsewhere, or by creating their own mushroom, installing it onsite and documenting its reception.
This network of relationships is complemented by a counterpart installation in the Centennial Museum: a living map of the region made from mycelium that sporadically grows mushrooms as new connections are made across town.
Community collaborators both narrated the lives of their mushroom vessels on the Mu.Shroom.City blog, and they harvested their mushrooms for a public tasting prepared by Robert Ardovino at the Centennial Museum.
Mu.shroom.city was a commissioned satellite project of ISEA International, 2012.
Shell-ter-wear, designed by Christine Foerster in 2005, is a continually evolving medium based on modules made of fabric lined with alternating snaps, light weight collapsible tent poles and hand-crafted connector units. Although derived from simple forms, Shell-ter-wear can create infinite possibilities, ranging from a personal garment to a small pod to a large communal shelter.
Shell-ter-wear: Leaving the Cocoon probes the liminal space between what we are and what we long to become. The cocoon signifies a latent state of metamorphosis: it embodies all the elements that can produce another form, another kind of self.
Shell-ter-wear: Tribes and Tents explores the relationship between the individual and the collective through the intermediary layers that separate and connect garment to shelter. In particular, how do individual choices and actions shape the possibilities of what we may achieve cooperatively? I am interested in using the transitional space between garment and shelter to create scenarios for interpersonal connectedness.
Bio.domo.sis is an open air greenhouse attached to a farm.cycle. Built from bamboo, tent poles, connectors, fabric, a bicycle and trailer, Bio.domo.sis features vertical, upside down, hydroponic and wearable gardens. Most of the materials used in Bio.domo.sis are recycled, reclaimed, renewable and/or organic.
Bio.domo.sis was also a site of edible.squishable.wearable, an interactive performance in which dancers removed part of the Bio.domo.sis structure to make their costumes and live plant hats and then used the locally sourced produce on the farm.cycle to both prepare a dish and wear it; Chile.bind, a woven tapestry of locally sources chiles; and a Poemales workshop, locally produced poems about food of the El Paso and Juarez region wrapped in corn husks to produce "poemales."
edible.squishable.wearable choreography by Emily Morgan, Costume and Stage Design by Christine Foerster, and performances by UTEP dancers: Music Adame, Alexica Baca, Laura Corral, Ana Nieto, Maria Portillo, Chelsea Shugert, Nicole Soto, Oscar Vásquez.
Chile.bind was made in collaboration with UTEP art students, Cassandra Davisson, Laura Hayes and Isabella Hernández
The term "poemal" is an original concept of La Línea. The first public performance of Poemales by La Línea in collaboration with Caltranzit took place in Tijuana in 2004.
Bio.domo.sis was commissioned by the Museum and Cultural Affairds Dept. of El Paso, Tx for Chalk the Block, 2010.