Artist Spotlight #2: CHRISTY ROBERTS
Rhizomatic Arts is proud to feature members of our Sustainability Network who are supporting their communities through their creative and professional practice.CHRISTY ROBERTS creates "experiences, images, and objects that attempt to reconcile revolution with escapism, as a millennial living under the weight of increasingly high stakes for humanity."
Christy! Tell us about your many creative practices!
I'm one of those people who seems like they do everything, but I don't. I've never climbed a mountain, for example. But I do do lots of things. I've participated in capital exchanges for the art I've made. I have an MFA from Claremont Graduate University and have an interdisciplinary art practice consisting of performance (actions and laboratories), objects (sculpture, reliefs, installations, paintings), images (photography, video), experiences (social practice, events, etc.), and sound.
As if that weren't enough, I make and produce my own music and sing. I have a project called Glitzer and I'm currently recording my first album and writing my second. We've been playing a lot lately. Because I like music, I like to DJ. I have a show on KCHUNG called Problematic Radio. We're about to move to every other Tuesday, starting August 3rd, but you can find other episodes of Problematic and of Ginger Snapz (our previous name) in the archive. I also write sometimes for some publications, usually about art and art related things. I'm a professor at the Riverside Community College District and University of La Verne. And recently I've done a little styling and art direction. I love making vegan food, but I've never been paid to do it.
Over all, I have a revolutionary spirit that's pretty passionate about empathy, agape, and self love. I love art forms and making, despite having a historically difficult relationship with art objects and I love community, so I just like to do whatever I can whenever I can wherever I can to enjoy life and smash the ableist cis hetero white supremist patriarchal state.
How do you support your community/ies through your practice?
Well, my liberation is both directly and indirectly tied to the liberation of others, so I regularly hold laboratories and skill shares for underserved peoples to offer skill enhancement. I've taught electronic music making and djing to female and non-gender binary identified groups, held spell casting labs, facilitated tech skill shares, taught seed bomb making, zine making, etc. Skill building is a facet of mutual aid that speaks directly to the self love of the individual, allowing them to participate as a more confident revolutionary. Plus, DIY is fun.
What do you want to see in the world, 10 years from now? How does what you're doing contribute to that world?
Ooof... a significant enough reduction in carbon emissions that climate crisis is no longer an impending threat to our survival. An end to ableist cis hetero patriarchal white supremist capitalism.
I believe that community is the opposite of violence and violence is the language of patriarchy, so I try to speak in the language of community. I don't "kill it" on stage, I heal it, you dig? Language. I work everyday, in every way I can, to deconstruct and decolonize everything I know. Language is so powerful, I'm careful and inclusive with mine. I practice mutual aid, community, and the enhancement of life quality through the sharing of knowledge. I don't know if that will aid in our survival in the end, but I will have been lucky enough, regardless, to have lived a meaningful life full of love, and that's enough of a reason to live like my metaphorical children will inherit what we've left.
What's coming up next for you?
Exciting things are coming up for KCHUNG, where I'm the volunteer coordinator. This includes our involvement in a very exciting public art event this summer, and I am also part of a team of folks curating Perform Chinatown, on behalf of KCHUNG. I also have something in the works for an exhibition this August that will include some of my experiments with witches as archetypes for contemporary creative activists operating in spite of capitalism. The Fall has a few other exciting things lined up that are having details worked out- both for me and KHCUNG. Glitzer will be playing Chinatown Design Night on June 25th and also House of Worship on July 1st at Fais Do Do. I just wrapped an artist residency at KCHUNG last month, so I also look forward to continue that body of work: paintings and objects made from velvet, hair, precious metals, clay, and crystals! I have a Newsletter that keeps folx informed. If you want to be on it, here's the link!
Glitzer's first instrumental release, "SCORE", is available on Spotify and Tidal
