Hoo boy! Today, we have a couple of monster birds to close out the featured artists of the Bird Sanctuary. Beth Wiedner and I stumbled upon the work of Christophe Roberts while doing a gallery walk in Pilsen and were immediately smitten. Christophe’s striking animal sculptures have a mix of comic playfulness and immediate authority, and he makes his work exclusively out of Nike shoe boxes. An aggressively creative up-cycler, he hand-cuts hundreds of pieces of cardboard and feathers his creations in their native box colors with insane results. Christophe was one of the few artists that we had cold-called about being in Nomadic Studio, and not only was he amenable to the idea, he also brought these two large creations, “Our Bird” and “Hawk’s Revenge” to us himself.
“Hawk’s Revenge”, on the right, is an intimidating bird swooping down for the kill. It was unique in that it was one of the only pieces of art we could hang from the ceiling, as it was light enough for the uni-strut racks and didn’t pose a fire hazard with the sprinklers. “Our Bird” on the left, is the giant head of an eagle on a trophy plaque that is maybe 4 feet from top to bottom. “Our Bird” got a special place above the zine library in our SITE Office, and is just majestic. Christophe was kind enough to let us hang onto these for the rest of the exhibit, and we jumped at the chance to keep them longer.
Funny story about installing “Our Bird”: since the exhibit shifted often, we were constantly taking down and putting up art. In the true spirit of the Studio, we did this in plain view of guests regularly. While we were taking the plastic off the eagle, preparing it for install, we were stopped and questioned by a gentleman who was blown away by Christophe’s work. “Oh man,” we told him, “this thing is great! It’s made entirely out of Nike boxes!” The gentleman turned out to be the head of the DePaul Basketball department and said he had dozens and dozens of Nike boxes sitting in his office that usually get pitched. Christophe ended up getting the windfall from this accidental sponsorship for several years. I was giddy to call him up and tell him the good news. Being at the right place at the right time was often the engine that drove this exhibit forward. And so we go forward!
Christophe Roberts is a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, painting, design and installation work. His practice explores complex masculinities, rebel origin myths, and the commodification of identity through meditations on mass culture iconography. Roberts repurposes everyday objects with an intention to reconfigure their meaning and positioning in the familiar public archive.
https://manza-studios.com/
