Christina's practice focuses on areas of land that can be found along the peripheries of our towns and cities, within the spaces aptly named by geographer Marion Shoard as the Edgelands and described by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts in their book of that name, as a kind of no-mans land, a debatable zone, that is complex and mysterious (Farley and Symmons Roberts 2011:6). These unwatched
Christina's practice focuses on areas of land that can be found along the peripheries of our towns and cities, within the spaces aptly named by geographer Marion Shoard as the Edgelands and described by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts in their book of that name, as a kind of no-mans land, a debatable zone, that is complex and mysterious (Farley and Symmons Roberts 2011:6). These unwatched and disregarded places that sit along the fringes of our towns and cities - the copses; scrublands; railway lines; bridges; brooks; abandoned quarries all seem a world away from our ideas of the 'real' countryside, and often remain invisible to most of us regardless of their close proximity to our doorsteps. However, it is in these concealed and overlooked spaces that certain things thrive and a true kind of wilderness can be found (Farley and Symmons Roberts 2011). In this ambiguous and often challenging terrain Christina searches out the invisible and an opportunity to discover that which we often choose not to see. Through an engagement with the archaeological discipline and an artistic appropriation of its methods of extracting the secrets of the past, Christina attempts to extract and examine the disregarded and overlooked of the present. Through collecting, drawing, mapping and analyzing the artefacts, monuments and structures that exist within 'active' areas surrounding our built environment, Christina seeks to examine, interpret and present possible narratives that emanate from the data. Christina's methods seek to encounter a fresh vision of this constantly evolving edge landscape and offer a way of reevaluating the sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes intriguing relationships that emerge from within it. As Victor Buchli and Gavin Lucas explain in their book Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past, an archaeology of the contemporary turns the methods back on ourselves and reverses the situation so that the familiar object is made unfamiliar. Through this process objects are made palatable and sanitised by the distancing effect, allowing us to view the subject in more objective terms (Buchli and Lucas 2011:9). Christina's interest is in what the objectifying and alienating process of archaeology enables us to discover about ourselves, from within these places of England that lay our dirty secrets bare (Farley and Symmons Roberts 2011: 10).
Qualifications and training
2019 Continuing Professional Development, Arts 4 Dementia/ Dementia Pathfinders, Barbican Centre, London
2018 Dementia and the Arts: Sharing Practice, Developing Understanding and Enhancing Lives, UCL and Created Out of Mind, accredited by Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) online course
2018 Arts 4 Dementia: Early-Stage Dementia Awareness Training for Arts Facilitators, National Gallery, London
2011 MA Fine Art , Wimbledon College of Art
2004 BA Fine Art, University of Hertfordshire
Employment and Work Experience
2019 - ongoing Co-director of Open Art Box CIC, a visual arts organisation running events and courses for people living with early-stage dementia in Hertfordshire
2019 - Joint Project Leader and Arts facilitator for Conversations in Drawing, an eight week course of drawing workshops for people living with dementia and their carers, funded by Arts Council England
2018 - Arts facilitator for Hertswise Dementia Hubs, Letchworth, Stevenage, Hertford, Buntingford
2017 - ongoing Hertswise Weekly Dementia Hubs, Volunteer, Letchworth Garden City
2017 - ongoing Befriender for Age Uk (Herts), Volunteer, Welwyn Garden City, Herts
Solo exhibitions
2013 Hidden Landscapes, ACE and LGCHF funded project, Letchworth Arts Centre, Letchworth Garden City
2009 Drawn On, Drawn In, Margaret Harvey Gallery, St Albans
Selected group shows
2014 Letchworth: A Vision of Utopian, curated by Kiera Blakey, commissioned by Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, Letchworth, Hertfordshire
2012 Always Greener, curated by Rosemary Shirley, PM Gallery and House, Ealing Broadway
2009 Particles, particles, curated by Sam Clift, Surface Gallery, Nottingham
2008 Electric Blue curated by Rita Parente, Bargehouse London
2008 Open Exhibition, Margaret Harvey Gallery, St Albans
2006 Betrayed by the Senses, curated by Rita Parente, Bargehouse, London
2005 Furniture of Sorts, curated by Lynn Cluer, Stoud House Gallery, Stroud
Graduate shows
2011 Wimbledon College of Art Postgraduate Show, Wimbledon College of Art
2004 Degree Show, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield Projects
Projects
2012-13 Hidden Landscapes Project (ACE funded), Letchworth Arts Centre (Aug 2013)
Publications
2013 Hidden Landscapes Project reviewed by Tom Jeffreys, 'The Learned Pig', November 2013
Competitions, prizes and awards
2008 First Prize (Open Exhibition), Margaret Harvey Gallery, St Albans
2006 Cultural and Creative Award (Open Exhibition), Margaret Harvey Gallery, St Albans