Chris Christion
The Unauthorized Histography of California Volume 1
2018
Appropriation art collage piece work-in-progress
What is The Unauthorized Histography of California Vol 1?
The Unauthorized Histography of California Volume 1 is an appropriated video collage exploring how individual and institutional predispositions towards patriarchal models intersect and impact notions of race, class, gender, sexuality, and nation. In the early 1500’s Spanish writer Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo created Queen Calafia. In a
Calafia, or Califia, is the fictional queen of the island of California, first introduced by sixteenth-century poet Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo in his epic novel of chivalry, Las sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián), written around 1510.
Calafia, or Califia, is the fictional queen of the island of California, first introduced by sixteenth-century poet Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo in his epic novel of chivalry, Las sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián), written around 1510.
Calafia, or Califia, is the fictional queen of the island of California, first introduced by sixteenth-century poet Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo in his epic novel of chivalry, Las sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián), written around 1510.
time when colonization was in its infancy, he established a portrait of the powerful ruler of an independent, matriarchal, and militarized kingdom. In 2001 Disney re-appropriated her image in the now-closed 23-minute multimedia experience “Golden Dreams” telling the history of California through several recreated scenes narrated by the fictional warrior queen. Introduced as the “Queen of California” she watched over the viewers as a witness, mother, and protector as the observed admirable and regrettable incidents in the history of California’s creation. The Unauthorized Histography of California Volume 1 represents Calafia through the image of Diouana the main
protagonist in the movie La Noir De (aka Black Girl) directed by Ousmane Sembène. In Sembène’s film, Diouana represents a break from Eurocentric conventions by providing films first African perspectives on the tense relationships between the formerly colonized and colonizer. In The Unauthorized Histography of California Volume 1, Diouana guides the viewer through historic flashes of the gold rush, white flight, and the LA Riots. It concludes that institutional use of structural violence, domestic violence, and violence in a community in order to maintain power and stability is a hypermasculinist model, which ultimately leads to weakness and instability.
The Unauthorized Histography of California Volume 1 2018 Appropriation art collage piece work-in-progress
The Unauthorized Histography of California Volume 1 2018 Appropriation art collage piece work-in-progress
The Unauthorized Histography of California Volume 1 2018 Appropriation art collage piece work-in-progress
The Unauthorized Histography of California Volume 1 2018 Appropriation art collage piece work-in-progress
Some important things to note:
A 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 art the past century within the categories of war and inventions”
Calafia through the image of Diouana the main protagonist in the movie La Noir De (aka Black Girl) directed by Ousmane Sembène.
A now-closed 23-minute multimedia experience opened in 2001 by Disney. They re-appropriated Califia’s mage in the “Golden Dreams” telling the history of California through several recreated scenes narrated by the fictional warrior queen.
A 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 art the past century within the categories of war and inventions”
Library of Congress Research Guides:
The Unauthorized Histography of California is included by the MexiCali Biennial team in published Research Guides in the Library of Congress that initiate and develop the first borderlands research project focused on the history of the Biennial and key issues in border studies.
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, it is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. These research guides will be available to researchers, students, and all who are interested in learning about the art, culture, and environment of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. These research guides will be available to researchers, students, and all who are interested in learning about the art, culture, and environment of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. I’m excited to know that The Library will preserve and provides access to such a rich, diverse, and enduring source of knowledge for years to come!
The Making of The Unauthorized
Histography of California Volume 1
Listen to Chris Christion discuss his process of video collage and the creation of this video art series
The Unauthorized Histography of California Vol. 2: Fieldnotes, 2022
2018
Appropriation art collage piece work-in-progress
The Unauthorized Histography of California Vol 2: Fieldnotes 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.
Queen Califia, a fictional character in which California received her namesake, played by Wimbley, will be used as a central figure throughout the length of the video, navigating through a multilayered video collage of Californian history and landscape, (histography) centered on the location and history of the Negro Bar State Park, a historic site named for African American gold miners during the 1849 California Gold Rush.
Clip, The Unauthorized Histography of California Vol 2: Fieldnotes,2022
Fieldnotes
Collaborative Art Projects by Jessica Wimbley and Chris Christion
Fieldnotes explores the culturally diverse and layered history of California principally during the westward expanse driven by the 1849 California Gold Rush and its relationship to the various sites both temporal and geographical in California history. Histography, a type of interactive timeline which allows users to interface with views between decades to millions of years, is used as framework to create dense multilayered imagery. Additionally, archive building, collage, histography, performance, and video are used to create artworks that investigate California’s natural, social, and political histories.
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.
Film Still, Fieldworks, 1928 Zora Neale Hurston
The Land of Milk & Honey is a traveling multidisciplinary arts and culture program that focuses on concepts around agriculture in the regions of California and Mexico and is presented by the MexiCali Biennial.
The exhibition explores artists’ views around multi-layered topics associated with agriculture including environmental impacts, cultural culinary traditions, identity and migration, regional histographies, and familial and mythical connections to food.
Still, The Unauthorized Histography of California Vol. 2: Fieldnotes, 2022
Selected Themes and Sources
Selected Themes and Sources
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
