Christy Walsh
"In all of my artistic practices I examine and investigate the nature of time and space, which I think is the essence of being in the world. My media include: dance-theater performances, videos, paintings, drawings, photographs, costumes and sculptural objects - all of which reference time and space in some way. Some of these works layer images from different times and spaces to suggest simultaneity, some are direct responses to the natural world. I am heavily influenced by Greek mythology, Roman history, twentieth-century philosophy, speculative fiction, and the novels of Murakami. While the movement in film and video are more natural extensions of my origins as a dancer, in all of my processes I arrive as a dancer, so making art objects is very much a physical act for me - much the same as dancing a piece of choreography.
My choreography is essential to my practice, and while I consider ballet to be the primary language, my movement incorporates theater dance, flamenco, and martial arts into a distinctive contemporary vocabulary. This approach of studying and adapting techniques and styles extends to my work in video and visual arts as well. My object-making, which includes props for my theatrical and video productions, is very choreographic in that I am arranging objects in space.
I started drawing as a child, and continued drawing and painting even as I went on to work primarily in dance, video, and photography. When I realized that my photographs had become increasingly painterly I decided that it was time to return to making drawings and paintings. After working almost exclusively with chalk, charcoal, and pencil on paper for a few years I decided to return to painting."
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Agamemnon Weeping, 18x24 inches, Chalk, charcoal and pencil, 2022
"Agamemnon weeps for his daughter Iphigenia, whom he sacrificed so that his soldiers might have a wind to take them to war.
Greek mythology is really about everything. The stories are always timely - no matter what the time - because they deal with the fundamental truths of human nature. Years ago, I started working to capture some of these inspiring sagas in dance, video and photography. However, as my photographs began to increasingly resemble drawings, I decided that it was time to return to my drawing practice. The drawings in the series follow two main themes; “Tears” and “Stones”, with the addition of some studies of poems. “Tears” depicts weeping characters who have fallen on evil times and have much to mourn. “Stones” allude to the various stones that play critical roles in some of the stories. The drawings are created by sketching the main action in pencil, followed by several layers of pastel and charcoal, and finished with pencil renderings of the designs and striations that mimic those found on Greek statuary and painted objects."
Andromeda's Stone, 18x24 inches, chalk, charcoal and pencil, 2023
"Greek stories, starting with the creation mythology and perpetuated through continued production of all manner of plastic and performing arts inspired by Homer and the tragedies and comedies through which the characters are developed, play a central role in our understanding of ourselves and humans born into Western culture. I have been reading and re-reading Seferis’s treatment of the stories, as well as returning to Homer and have worked to capture some of these inspiring sagas in dance, drawing, photography and painting."
Atlas, 11x14 inches, chalk, charcoal and pencil, 2023
"Greek stories play a central role in our understanding of ourselves as humans born into Western culture. They start with an amazing creation mythology and continue through Homer’s famous accounts of the Trojan War. Tragedies and comedies, as well as artworks, are inspired by the characters first introduced by the ancient Greeks. I have been reading and re-reading Giorgios Seferis’s treatment of the stories, as well as returning to Homer and have worked to capture some of these inspiring sagas in dance, drawing, photography and painting. This specific series of drawings emerged from experiments with layers of pastels, charcoal and pencil on paper."