CHRISTINA YOCCA

Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Untitled

Found natural materials

I revere the stuff of nature-both the detritus and the wonders. While transforming earth, fibers and branches into mysterious vessels and sensual objects, I seek to relay messages heard only by the ear of the heart. Forces and forms f nature act as metaphors for the bare bones of the human condition. I borrow building techniques from past cultures and the natural building movement. These include structures from Native American architecture and Japanese fence building, natural clay plasters, and straw-clay building. My work poetically combines disparate images. The earthen materials mimic landscape textures. The surfaces evoke rocks, fields, or outcroppings. In the Forked Branch Series, I start with a forked branch then form a vessel. The vessels relate to the human form and have bellies or lungs and lips. They sit, stand, or envelope space like embracing arms. The adobelike walls vibrate when the air of a voice passes into and through the contained volume. This invisible force of breath and wind is a main element of the piece. Many cultures and religions have concepts about wind and breath. James Kale McNeley has written about the Navajo concept of Wind. “That which is within and that which surrounds one is all the same and it is holy.”

Christina Yocca has received commissions for site-specific works from The City of Philadelphia; the Fairmount Park Commission in Philadelphia; the

Cheltenham Art Centre; The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; and Muriel and Phillip L. Berman. She is the recipient of grants from the Midwest New Partnership, the Ruth Chevon Foundation, Inc., and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She received an MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From 1987-1995, she taught in the Art Department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, heading the fiber program.

Donated by the artist to the Laurie Bieze Permanent Art Collection.

Chasm With Wing

Found natural materials

Envelope

Found natural materials

Mundus

Maple branch, abaca paper, flax and ramie fiber, clay pigments

Swing

Kudzu vine, flax and ramie fibers, clay, beeswax, linseed oil

Untitled

Charcoal drawing