Christine Aaron
Emergence, 2020-present
thousands of hand dyed silk cocoons, thread dimensions variable. as shown 10 x 8 feet x 5 inches
Emergence (2020 to present) brings natural ephemera and processes to the forefront of my meditations on time and memory. The Emergence installation, containing hundreds of hand-dyed silk cocoons, seems to emerge and grow across the walls. Its expanse mirrors maps and migrations, reflecting the constant passage of time. All these series center on making connections, between the natural and the manmade, the past and the present, from human to human. I choose materials and processes that highlight the human hand, the resilience of the human spirit, our connectedness across geographies and experience. I offer a window into the beauty of the overlooked and highlight our interdependence with our environments and the marks they leave on us.
Christine Aaron
Emergence (detail), 2020-present
thousands of hand dyed silk cocoons, thread dimensions variable. as shown 10 x 8 feet x 5 inches
Emergence (2020 to present) brings natural ephemera and processes to the forefront of my meditations on time and memory. The Emergence installation, containing hundreds of hand-dyed silk cocoons, seems to emerge and grow across the walls. Its expanse mirrors maps and migrations, reflecting the constant passage of time. All these series center on making connections, between the natural and the manmade, the past and the present, from human to human. I choose materials and processes that highlight the human hand, the resilience of the human spirit, our connectedness across geographies and experience. I offer a window into the beauty of the overlooked and highlight our interdependence with our environments and the marks they leave on us.
Christine Aaron
Marking Time 58, 2022
tea bag, thread 5.5 x 3.25 inches
Marking Time During the pandemic, enduring shelter-at-home orders, I think about the myriad stories experienced world-wide. There is already much fear, uncertainty and tumult in this country and beyond, and now this worldwide viral threat, not yet understood, but spreading rapidly. Misinformation, screaming headlines, and dire prognostications. I wonder what I will hold onto from these difficult months and what connects us. I fight to hold onto hope, to believe there is a way forward, that solutions and good can prevail, that beauty remains important. In my studio I sort through collected ephemera. Objects resonant with memories of people, places, and experiences: hand-dyed silk cocoons, salvaged teabags, birds’ nests, thorns, vintage dress patterns and sheet music, browned and brittle with discoloration reminiscent of watercolor, seed pods and rusty metal pieces. I collage materials onto tea bag canvases; stitched and pierced with thread and thorns. Each, a meditation reclaiming memory and personal history brought into my present experience. It is reparative, healing, and a psychological and emotional anchor in tumultuous times. I continue this series to present day. As the world around me remains chaotic, uncertain and (tumultuous, painful etc). I layer and stitch with a stubborn insistence of hope, a resistance to fear, and a marking of time. Using what is on hand, making do and creating a physical record as declaration and as witness.
Christine Aaron
Marking Time 91, 2022
tea bag, rusted metal, thread 3 x 2.27 inches
Marking Time During the pandemic, enduring shelter-at-home orders, I think about the myriad stories experienced world-wide. There is already much fear, uncertainty and tumult in this country and beyond, and now this worldwide viral threat, not yet understood, but spreading rapidly. Misinformation, screaming headlines, and dire prognostications. I wonder what I will hold onto from these difficult months and what connects us. I fight to hold onto hope, to believe there is a way forward, that solutions and good can prevail, that beauty remains important. In my studio I sort through collected ephemera. Objects resonant with memories of people, places, and experiences: hand-dyed silk cocoons, salvaged teabags, birds’ nests, thorns, vintage dress patterns and sheet music, browned and brittle with discoloration reminiscent of watercolor, seed pods and rusty metal pieces. I collage materials onto tea bag canvases; stitched and pierced with thread and thorns. Each, a meditation reclaiming memory and personal history brought into my present experience. It is reparative, healing, and a psychological and emotional anchor in tumultuous times. I continue this series to present day. As the world around me remains chaotic, uncertain and (tumultuous, painful etc). I layer and stitch with a stubborn insistence of hope, a resistance to fear, and a marking of time. Using what is on hand, making do and creating a physical record as declaration and as witness.
Christine Aaron
Marking Time 129, 2024
tea bag, encaustic monotype, shell, thread 5.5 x 3.25 inches
Marking Time During the pandemic, enduring shelter-at-home orders, I think about the myriad stories experienced world-wide. There is already much fear, uncertainty and tumult in this country and beyond, and now this worldwide viral threat, not yet understood, but spreading rapidly. Misinformation, screaming headlines, and dire prognostications. I wonder what I will hold onto from these difficult months and what connects us. I fight to hold onto hope, to believe there is a way forward, that solutions and good can prevail, that beauty remains important. In my studio I sort through collected ephemera. Objects resonant with memories of people, places, and experiences: hand-dyed silk cocoons, salvaged teabags, birds’ nests, thorns, vintage dress patterns and sheet music, browned and brittle with discoloration reminiscent of watercolor, seed pods and rusty metal pieces. I collage materials onto tea bag canvases; stitched and pierced with thread and thorns. Each, a meditation reclaiming memory and personal history brought into my present experience. It is reparative, healing, and a psychological and emotional anchor in tumultuous times. I continue this series to present day. As the world around me remains chaotic, uncertain and (tumultuous, painful etc). I layer and stitch with a stubborn insistence of hope, a resistance to fear, and a marking of time. Using what is on hand, making do and creating a physical record as declaration and as witness.
Christine Aaron
Marking Time 132, 2024
tea bag, encaustic monotype, thread 5.5 x 3.25 inches
Part of the Marking Time series. Marking Time During the pandemic, enduring shelter-at-home orders, I think about the myriad stories experienced world-wide. There is already much fear, uncertainty and tumult in this country and beyond, and now this worldwide viral threat, not yet understood, but spreading rapidly. Misinformation, screaming headlines, and dire prognostications. I wonder what I will hold onto from these difficult months and what connects us. I fight to hold onto hope, to believe there is a way forward, that solutions and good can prevail, that beauty remains important. In my studio I sort through collected ephemera. Objects resonant with memories of people, places, and experiences: hand-dyed silk cocoons, salvaged teabags, birds’ nests, thorns, vintage dress patterns and sheet music, browned and brittle with discoloration reminiscent of watercolor, seed pods and rusty metal pieces. I collage materials onto tea bag canvases; stitched and pierced with thread and thorns. Each, a meditation reclaiming memory and personal history brought into my present experience. It is reparative, healing, and a psychological and emotional anchor in tumultuous times. I continue this series to present day. As the world around me remains chaotic, uncertain and (tumultuous, painful etc). I layer and stitch with a stubborn insistence of hope, a resistance to fear, and a marking of time. Using what is on hand, making do and creating a physical record as declaration and as witness.
Christine Aaron
Sweet Retreat, 2023
encaustic monotype, thread 11.25x 6.25 inches
An extension of the Marking Time pieces, at a arger scale.
Christine Aaron
Vestiges II, 2019
burnt drawing on handmade abaca paper, thread 18 x 12 inches
My work investigates loss, memory and the fragility of the human condition: Absence and presence, the record of experience that remains invisible but indelible, how the whole is marked and repaired, yet remains intact. I create work to make visible what is intangible. Hand dyed and burnt paper become vehicles for content. I use materials and processes that are immediate and unpredictable, where traces of the hand remain. Dying and burning are inexact, and I lose much of what I started with, which begins the process of reclamation and repair. What is lost becomes as much a part of the piece as what is retained, and this history haunts the work. Loss impacts and lives within us, shapes and marks us. Burning, used throughout history to destroy and sanctify, evokes absence and presence, destruction and redemption. Burnt drawings reference language, mapping, and regeneration. The cast light and shadows convey the shifting relationship between perception, memory and experience and act as physical evidence of what is lost. Stitching evokes the repetitive action, especially by women, of making, repairing and connecting; a determined resilience to piece together meaning despite vulnerability, disappointment and inevitable decline.. These works are whole and beautiful despite and because of being fragile and pieced together. The hand wrought and manipulated materials validate the nature of being human: the imperfect, the intimate, the individual lived experience in the face of the unknown.
Christine Aaron
Secret, 2018
burned, oak gall ink dyed, asian paper with thread stitching 10" x 8"
Christine Aaron
Secret II, 2018
burned, oak gall ink dyed, asian paper with thread stitching 10" x 8"
