Chris Christion
The Unauthorized Histography of California Volume 1
I explore a timeline starting with California's birth and then fuse it with my autobiographical history of California in the 1980s and the LA Riot, unearthing admirable and regrettable eras and incidents in California history.
Histography is an Interactive Timeline
It allows viewers to jump from a variety of events or target a specific event in time searching in relation to a specific category.
So for example you could look at the past century within the categories of war and politics
Some Themes in Vol 1
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How historical inaccuracies are enacted to distort cultural and institutional perceptions
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The Institutional use of structural violence, domestic violence, and violence in communities in order to maintain power and stability
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The idea that a hypermasculinist model ultimately leads to weakness and instaability
The Unauthorized Histography of California Vol 2: Fieldnotes
2018 Collaboration with Jessica Wimbley
Appropriation art collage piece work-in-progress
is an 8 -minute collaborative video collage. It is part of a two-volume series and weaves together vignettes composed of archival imagery from the Sacramento Historical Society of the Negro Bar and Sacramento/greater California Community, sourced video footage, and video/photo imagery produced by the artist team at the Negro Bar State Park, Sacramento area, and artist home studio. Imagery is layered in a framework to create dense multilayered remixing of video/ still imagery.
Fieldnotes namesake, is a homage to the anthropological research and film production of Zora Neale Hurston, in her groundbreaking documentary Fieldworks, 1928, while also demarking archive building, collage, video and performance as forms of fieldnotes.
California Natural Resource Agency, Sacramento, CA
Public Art CA Digital Art Collection
Fieldnotes: Califia, 2021
Chris Christion & Jessica Wimbley
Video Collage
2:34 minutes
In partnership with the State of California and Dyson and Womack, Fieldnotes: Califia is featured on 35ft digital screen in the lobby of California Natural Resource Agency in Sacramento, CA.
Clip, Fieldnotes: Califia, 2021