The work in progress entitled Amortec brings together for the first time the robotic work of Christian Ristow and the acrobatic work of Christina Sporrong. This movement piece between woman and machine aspires to raise questions regarding the evolution and direction of the relationship between humanity and technology. Premiere of the performance will be at this year's Device_art Festival.
AmortecChristina Sporrong (US), Christian Ristow (US)
Performance, 2006
Christina Sporrong (US)
Born in Sweden and raised all over the world, Christina Sporrong evidenced a fierce artistic drive from an early age. She graduated from Parsons School of Design and while in New York City was first exposed to the art of welding. Working with red hot steel changed her focus from a burgeoning career in editorial illustration to sculpture. Working with metal became her passion.
Upon moving to Taos, New Mexico more than ten years ago, Sporrong opened her own commercial blacksmithing and fabrication shop known as Spitfire Forge. She has a long list of completed commissions and satisfied clients all over Northern New Mexico. In order to de-mystify metal and empower other women with this medium she began teaching. Her Women's Welding Workshops have been held locally since 1997 and run nationally every year since 2000.
Sporrong is also an accomplished aerial performer. She has used her skills with aerial fabric, trapeze and stilts in a number of productions in association with Wise Fool New Mexico, including Circus Luminous at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe.
Her recent sculptures have been seen at Shidoni Gallery in Santa Fe, the 2005 LA Arts Fest, the Women Do Iron Show in Aztec, NM and most recently at BOCA in San Francisco.
Christian Ristow (US)
Raised in San Francisco, the son of a plastic surgeon and a fine-artist, Christian Ristow developed an early and keen interest in the intersection between aesthetics and structure. After receiving a B.A. in Architecture from Columbia University in New York, he returned to San Francisco and began his apprenticeship with the groundbreaking robot performance group Survival Research Laboratories. Inspired by the experience and influenced by the works of sculptor Jean Tingueley, architect Santiago Calatrava, and artist H.R. Giger, Ristow began engineering his own distinctively biomechanical creations. After moving to Los Angeles in 1998, Ristow put his robots to work, orchestrating a series of solo shows exploring themes of unchecked power, sexual aggression, and human mortality.
Since his 2006 move to New Mexico, Ristow's work has focused on large-scale interactive mechanical sculptures, such as the Hand of Man, Fledgling, Face Forward, and Becoming Human, among others.
Ristow’s high-octane performance art and large sculptures have been seen at galleries, festivals, and fairs all over the world, from Los Angeles to New York City, from Jerusalem to Berlin to Melbourne, Australia.
His work has been featured in books like Robo Sapiens and Body Probe, in magazines such as Popular Mechanics, Wired, National Geographic, Spin, Raygun, Penthouse and Bizarre, as well as on Current TV and The Discovery Channel’s Monster Garage and Monster Nation. His animatronic and robotic work has been featured in Bicentennial Man, Stephen Spielberg’s A.I., Spider-Man 2, and Zathura, among other feature films and television commercials.
