Christa Donner

Drawing is my microscope and my scalpel: the tool I use to investigate physical sensation and imagination. My creative research brings together source material from contemporary culture in combination with material found in library picture archives, historical medical texts, biological charts, as well as geological and anthropological surveys. In the spirit of those keepers of sixteenth-century Kunst- und Wunderkammern I am drawn to the spaces between ignorance and knowledge, seeking to translate and transform sensory phenomena that exist beyond language.
My drawing practice has always involved an exchange between individuals and communities of various kinds – through interviews, collaborative workshops, and small-press ‘zines’ that provoke a reconsideration of our relationships with our bodies and each other. The chance to engage with historians of science brings new possibilities to this process: the perspectives of scholars working with deep knowledge of biology and the notion of the archive itself are invaluable in expanding such a dialogue, opening new lines of inquiry I would not come to as a non-specialist myself. The city of Berlin itself is an ideal site from which to combine the modern with the historical, offering an exceptionally vibrant mix of both.

My work is exhibited widely, including projects for the Museum Bellerive (Zurich, Switzerland), BankArt NYK (Yokohama, Japan), the Anti Festival (Kuopio, Finland), Chiaki Kamikawa Contemporary Art (Paphos, Cyprus), the Horst Janssen Museum (Oldenburg, Germany), Centro Columbo Americano (Colombia), and throughout the United States. I received my MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2005, and currently teach at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2012 I initiated the creative platform Cultural ReProducers, which supports cultural workers raising children through a range of events, critical writing, interviews, online resources, and print publications.