Invited artist:CHRISTYN OVERSTAKE
My work is about contemporary labor. I seek to visually explore the relationships between our socio-economic structures and the living world, human and non. My work is critical of the careless nature with which we engage in destructive and damaging behaviors, and the ramifications on the living biosphere and on human society. This abstraction is part of my Biomechanical Evolution Series, based in subversion of production manufacturing. The objects are produced in industrial media by repetition of form and action, paralleling mass-produced objects I fabricated in industry as a welder/fabricator.The outcomes of this repetition are not in pursuit of the perfection of sameness, but of deviation. Each repetition of the process yields a new and unpredictable result, allowing the forms to adapt and evolve over generations. There are currently 3 form lineages within the series - columns, spheres , and halos. This object is from a new digital lineage-an exploding iron sphere was digitally scanned and 3D printed, allowing the digital translation to transform and mutate the original object.This 3D print was produced in Germany, as part of the International Symposium on 3D printing and metal casting at Atelierhaus Hilmsen in 2022.Part of the wonder of this series as a whole is the experimental nature of every outcome - each translation of the forms through material and process generates something truly unexpected. The volume of repetition, in forms and materials so familiar, being capable of generating something strange and new on every iteration is part of what makes the series so exciting to continue over a long period of time. Every new object is a surprise, every new generation has something to offer the dialogue, every new form is a new opportunity to play.
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Christyn Overstake is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in the United States. Her background as a certified welder/fabricator in manufacturing informs her material and process decisions, as well as her conceptual and philosophical frameworks. She works primarily in metal foundry and fabrication processes, producing an evolving series of experimental, conceptual objects.She also works in installation, digital media, and printmaking, and has an ongoing collaboration with her spouse exploring biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. She received her BFA in sculpture from Northern Arizona University, and her MFA in sculpture from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.She is currently Assistant Professor of Art at East CentralUniversity in Ada, Oklahoma, and she serves on the Board of Directors of the Mid-SouthSculpture Alliance.Her work has been shown and collected in galleries, museums, and public sculpture walks across the United States and internationally.
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