Bio
Christine Rabenold is a Chicago-based artist and an Associate Professor of Art at North Central College. She served as the Coordinator of the Art Department from 2013 to 2017 and as the Chair of Art and Design from 2017 to 2022. Additionally, she was the Student Gallery Director from 2009 to 2019. Christine teaches a variety of courses, including ceramics, sculpture, three-dimensional design, advanced studies, and senior planning and exhibition capstone. She also co-led a December Abroad Seminar Course, Art and Memory in Italy, with Classics professor Michael de Brauw from 2014 to 2018.
Christine earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Tyler School of Art/Temple University and her Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She was born in Lehighton, Pennsylvania.
Artist Statement
My artwork comments on, if not examines aspects of memory, identity, class, humor, and environmental issues. Important questions about how we remember, what we choose to forget, how authentic these memories are, and why memory connects to one’s topographical environment are considerations in the work. In a world that increasingly relies on digital navigational maps, technology, and positional data, what does it mean to create a visual map of memory based on the shifting narratives of personal associations with locations? Additionally, how does this impact one’s psychological state and self-reflection?
A common practice is a connection of memory to objects and the use of the casting process. One interesting idea about the replication of objects through the casting process is the displacement of the real object and its simulacra. The casting process enables the memory of the original object to carry through but simultaneously competes with the original object’s authenticity and authorship. As an object maker, I am captivated by the notion of objects alluding to memories and the participatory dialogue that can evolve with the viewers. By the activity of making and casting a variety of objects can the banal/everyday become special but inextricably universal? Does this transform or elevate the everyday? And could this action function in reverse with a unique or significant object?