Artist Talk with Christian Cruz
September 29 - September 29,2020
An online conversation between Irish Bechtol and Christian Cruz. View the conversation live at @eastfieldarts on Instagram. "Join Eastfield Gallery Director Iris Bechtol and Christian Cruz as they discuss her practice and recent performance work. As a first generation American, Cruz’ performances share Mexican history and customs to address historical erasure, immigration politics, Chicanisma (Mexican American feminism), gender fluidity, pansexuality, intimacy, and futurism. Cruz states, “With a bit of anger, passion, humor, pain, resistance and strength, her performances rely on materials as metaphors.” Dirt, rope, a tree branch, familial clothing, a bed, and other objects are important to her practice, retaining a lingering meaning even after the performance stops.
Christian Cruz has been creating performance art since 2010. In 2019, her work was included in Cosmic to Corporeal: Contemporary Queer Performance Practices at The MAC in Dallas, TX curated by Liss LaFleur and the Texas Vignette at the Women’s Museum in Dallas curated by Leslie Moody Castro. Her first solo exhibition, I don’t dream of labor: Living Portraits of a 1st Generation Chicana was canceled due to the COVID-19 closure of the Dallas College - Eastfield Campus.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic she was scheduled to perform at Dallas Aurora and the Dallas Art Fair. Her recent performance lecture Anger as Currency organized by Chuquimarca Projects in Chicago, IL and live streamed on Instagram allowed participants to bid on her artworks using stories of anger and vulnerability as monetary substitutes. She lives and works in Dallas, TX. More about her work can be found at www.christiancruzperformance.com and via social media @tejanastories.
Photo credit: Lauren Wessel"
