Christine Holton

Kinship - Connections

Levin Jewish Community Center in Durham, NC Sept 12-Oct 15, 2017. 

About Kinship

Human connections alter both participants in some way. How we interact with one another is encoded in us from an early age; these encounters can be very impactful, or can fade entirely beneath our conscious thought.

Kinship is a process-based exploration of my experiences connecting with other people. In our daily interactions, we are constantly absorbing new information, forming impressions, and experiencing snap-judgment emotional responses within ourselves. These experiences can linger, changing our assumptions about others and creating more perceived truths. Looking for the similarities while learning and being interested in different perspectives expands the mind and creates humility and a sense of “being one among many”. The Kinship series contains mirror, a literal experience of inviting the viewer into the art.

Exploring connectivity and snap-judgments has been an artistic exploration of mine for years. After working in the service industry and encountering many folks for short slices of the day, I began writing character sketches and imagined stories about the people I encountered. I am interested in the mixing of groups of people and the ripple effects resulting from encounters.

The Kinship series is predominantly abstract.  The use of mirror allows the observer into the piece where a visually connected experience occurs. The mirror universally represents vanity and an excess of self-regard, reflecting every blemish and physical imperfection. It can also symbolize wisdom and self-knowledge. I crack, cut, and shatter mirror in an attempt to reflect and manipulate human feelings of self-absorption, comparison, and self-loathing.  The mirror doesn’t lie, however, nor does it reveal the complexities of human experience. The juxtaposition of mirror with other materials is an experimental process, and the finish line reveals itself in the process.