Biomythography
Investigating biomythography as an interdisciplinary visual arts practice.
ABOUT
Photo Credit: Todd Sharp
Wimbley/Christion Curatorial:
Chris Christion and Jessica Wimbley are both artists/curators based in Sacramento, Ca
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Christion has a hybrid of experiences as an artist, curator educator, and arts administrator. His work explores themes of history, identity, religion, and inherited social perceptions. He has exhibited throughout the US and Europe including the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, Chaffey College’s Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art, and the University of Dortmund, Germany. His work also appears in the critically acclaimed 2005 feature film “Me, You, and Everyone We Know.” Christion has recently exhibited his multimedia video works and installations in solo and group exhibitions as well as film festivals at Eastside International, Los Angeles, Steppling Art Gallery, SDSU, Imperial Valley Campus, Calexico, CA, and Every Day Epic, a Juneteenth Film Program with Queer Film Continuum, Plaza District, & Nappy Roots in Tulsa, OK.
Wimbley received her BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design, M.F.A in Visual Arts from the University of California, Davis, and her MA in Arts Management from Claremont Graduate University. She has been included in dozens of group shows across the country and has received critical reviews in Hyperallergic, Art and Cake, LA Weekly, Huffington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. Wimbley’s public art projects include the “Social Justice Billboard Project” in collaboration with the Northeast Sculpture and Gallery Factory in Minneapolis, MN; her billboard Masking: Testament was installed near the corner of 38th and Chicago, the site of the George Floyd murder, and the recently completed Masking Series,2021 featuring video and still photography created in partnership with the State of California and The Center at Sierra Health Foundation, to speak
directly to Californians who have been hardest hit by COVID-19. Additionally, as part of The City of Sacramento’s “Your Actions Save Lives” Public Art Campaign, Wimbley’s large-scale video work, Masking 2021, is located in Sacramento’s Arden Fair Mall and in Oak Park, Sacramento neighborhood billboard. Masking, 2021 has been featured in the Sac Bee, ABC News, and KCRA, with an ad campaign in 11 markets statewide which include print media, digital billboards, and a tv spot.
What is Biomythography?
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Biomythography is a literary term; it is a style of composition that weaves myth, history, and biography in epic narrative. Defined by Audre Lorde in her seminal piece Zami: A New Spelling of My Name it has been known to shape theories of intersectionality and highlight the idea of internal, external, and multiple selves. As artists/curators, Christion and Wimbley are intrigued by the interconnected and multifaceted link of biomythography across disciplines, particularly in the visual arts
The Biomythography Curatorial Series:
Investigating biomythography as an interdisciplinary visual arts practice....
Through developing a series of curatorial projects contextualizing the visual arts within biomythography, Wimbley/Christion work as context providers for critical dialectic: addressing the nuances within ever-shifting identities and how we experience/create our contemporary world and culture.
Biomythography: Currency Exchange East and Peggy Phelps Galleries, Claremont Graduate University
Biomythography: Reflexive Remix Harris Gallery, LaVerne College
Biomythography: Making Visible Cerritos College Art Gallery, Norwalk, Ca
Biomythography: Currency Exchange East and Peggy Phelps Galleries, Claremont Graduate University
Why Examine Biomythography as Studio Practice:
Implementing biomythography as a studio practice provides a challenge to critical historical practices. Multi-mediated and interdisciplinary platforms are used to investigate historical facts, life experience, pop culture, and mythology; challenging, forming, and informing, art history, display, anthropology, identity, and ritual as well as personal, universal, and institutional perspectives and histories.
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