Executives of Distinction, ASAVAVS reigns here. 2008

Christiane Leach
Gestures 10: Illustrations of Catastrophe and Remote Times, January 18 – June 15, 2008
Materials
found objects, recorded music

Conceptually based on the notion of an executive boardroom, this multi-media sculptural installation is aptly sited in the building’s cavernous, unfinished basement.

Description

Conceptually based on the notion of an executive boardroom, Leach’s multi-media sculptural installation is aptly sited in the building’s cavernous, unfinished basement. Through its use of organic materials, symbolic Native American and animal forms, and ambient music, the work comments on the toxic effects of unchecked progress on the environment and embodies a poetic interpretation of, in the artist’s words, how we humans are “draining the world dry with our desires.”

Objects: cardboard, foam heads, chains, sand, plaster, bottles, hubcap, pig snouts, paper mache’, cloth, toys, babydoll, gouache, acrylic, rope, bucket, pebbles, dead flowers, crows, guns, flour, cinnamon, watering can, mirrors, ceramic plates, live plant, theremin.

Music tracks: “Heads Growling”, “Asavas”, “Words of Industry”, “Earthworms Listening to Human Chaos”, “Earthly Delights”. Tracks created by Christiane D, with the exception of “Earthly Delights” by Soma Mestizo. Mixed and mastered by Soy Sos at Tuff Sound Recording.

 

Curated by Heather Pesanti

About the Artist

Christiane D. Leach is a multi-disciplinary artist whose oeuvre includes visual art, performance, poetry, music, playwrighting, curating, and producing. Her work explores universal and complex notions, such as good and evil, the forces of human will, and intuition, and how these factor into our most profound life decisions. As a distinctive voice of the Pittsburgh arts scene, Christiane Leach is the winner of a 2010 August Wilson Center Fellowship, a 2007 honoree at the New Hazlett Theatre “Celebrating Women in the Arts”, a 2003 winner of the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Fellowship for World/Jazz/Blues musical composition, and a 2002 Pittsburgh Magazine “40 under 40” award winner.