Christa Dijstelbergen

+ + + UAG Board Member Member Since: July 1st, 2004 Page Last Updated: July 7th, 2007 + Similar Artists: Martin Hatcher, Ginny Heller, Sarah MacWright, Joanne VanGenderen, John Weiler
	Artist Bio +

Christa Dijstelbergen is a native of Chicago, Illinois where she worked with Chicago's Red Moon Theatre, a street theater troupe employing large scale puppets. She has also worked as a costume designer. She is, along with collaborator John Weiler, among the ten founding members of the Upstate Artists Guild, and the pair form the nucleus of crasis d:zyne.

Christa and John have worked together as crasis d:zyne since 2004. The pair has created installations, smaller assemblages, stage sets/production designs, giant puppets, and have coordinated avant garde environments/events.

The work -- intuitive, improvisational and collaborative -- emerges from the egoless concord of creative minds just as the mingling components of the blood pumps life through the unified systems of the body. It is continuous, yet ephemeral: combining and recombining elements from past installations with new materials as the character of the space and fancy dictates. The ideal goal is not merely traditional presentation in the subject/object paradigm, or even a dialogue between same, but rather total immersion in which observer is both participant and component of the work.

Christa and John chose to work under a common name, like a band, because of the flexibility such an arrangement allows. Just as a band can bring in additional musicians, Christa and John can call on other artists and craftspeople to bring their skills into play for specific projects under the crasis d:zyne rubric. Video artist Jason Cosco and caterer Goutam Rajput have been members of the extended crasis family since the beginning. More recent collaborators include glass-blower Scott Pernika and metal-worker Joanne Agopovich.

For more on crasis d:zyne, please see John Weiler's page.

• Under the Influence
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, January 2011
• Games
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, November 2010
• ConTEXT
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, April 2010
• Slick
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, March 2010
• Small Works
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, December 2009
• Fresh Produce
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, November 2009
• Futura
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, November 2008
• Reflections
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, August 2008
• Fatal Abstraction
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, February 2008
• Bedroom Community
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, January 2008
• 7x5 for $75
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, December 2007
• Red
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, February 2007
• Members Show 2006
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, July 2006
• Illumination
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, March 2006
• First Night 2006
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, December 2005
• ACG Menagerie Art Circus
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, October 2005
• Grand Opening
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, September 2005
• Art4Central Group Member Show
  Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, New York, June 2005

• Art 4 Central
  Art 4 Central, July 2004, "not the moon" installation/event
• Danse Macabre
  Art 4 Central, October 2004, "Danse Macabre" installation/event
• Community Arts United Show
  The Mansion, Engleman Ter. March 2005, "Ascension" three story installlation
• 1st Anual Memebrs Show
  Art 4 Central, July 2005, ? Borealis ? plastics, water, sunlight
• The Institute Show
  the Albany Institute of History and Art, 9/15/05, "Stranger Within Silence" installation w/video
• UAG's First Night installation project.
  Palace Theatre Albany, 12/31/05, "Col. Gustav and Lady Annabella", giant puppets
• Dead of Winter
  the UAG Gallery, 2/06, "re-fract" light, plastics, miror
• Jack and the Beanstalk
  Confetti Stage, puppets of the Giant and his Wife
• Illuminations
  UAG Gallery, 3/06, "Parc Boreal" instalation with light and tree, "H2 Ohm" light, plastic, miror, water
• B.Sides art show
  Scarlet East Recording Studio, Albany, "The Narthex", room size installation with video
• Fashion Rock fashion show
  Lark Tavern, stage design with video
• Trashion
  Revolution Hall, October 2006, stage design
• e' ko-logic Fashion Show
  Marvin Neitzel Building, 12/7/06, stage design

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