Christie Brown - Rara Avis

Christie Brown - Rara Avis
Rara Avis presents the work of Christie Brown: a question of the 'posthuman' gaze or an animalistic recognition of our hubris gene?

For some years now Christie Brown has created human/animal hybrids often reminiscent of the figurative objects of ancient Egypt and China. She has harnessed the ability of such archaic and mythical artefacts to speak across time proposing links between the ancient and the contemporary.

However, in this body of work her use of collage brings a new sense of complexity. Rather than simply attributing human traits and emotions to animals or, representing the animal-like qualities of humans, she is more interested in ideas that penetrate the perceived barrier between human and animal, and which challenge traditional Western philosophical notions of what is intrinsically human.

'This gaze is beyond human perspective, thus "uninterpretable, unreadable, undecidable," but it is still a gaze, and a gaze addressed to us from the "abysmal" unknown, from the nonhuman, reversing the usual direction. It is we human beings, who think, we have the right to know, to observe the world and to define it, but when it returns our gaze, we are suddenly plunged into another, irreducible world, this one not having been built in accordance with our perceptions and our judgments.'
Jacques Derrida

Derrida's 'uninterpretable, unreadable, undecidable' provides a fitting description of the uncanny gaze of Brown's humanimals and other creatures. Maybe behind the gaze of each of her rarae aves, seemingly posthuman, frequently beyond species, is the recognition of hubris, that fatal human flaw that invariably leads to downfall? If not, they are certainly reminders that we human beings might benefit from a form of self-scrutiny that is far less self-regarding.

Christie Brown is an artist and research professor at the University of Westminster in London. She was Principal Investigator on the AHRC project Ceramics in the Expanded Field which was awarded to the team in 2011. She graduated from Harrow School of Art in 1982 and set up her north London studio. Her figurative ceramic work is informed by the fragmented narratives which reflect the parallel between archaeology and psychoanalysis. Her most recent solo exhibition DreamWork was held at the Freud Museum in 2012. Other major exhibitions include Marking the Line at the Sir John Soane's Museum in 2013 and Award at the British Ceramics Biennial 2013. Her work is featured in several private and public collections in Europe and the USA.

at ARTHOUSE1
45 Grange Road
The Borough, United Kingdom

---

Orignal From: Christie Brown - Rara Avis