Artist Email: christensenoko@sbcglobal.net
Artist Statement
I design and make objects and spaces in public, private and theatrical arenas. For over 27 years, I have successfully met thematic and practical challenges presented by clients and collaborators. I bring to these tasks experience with a broad range of materials and processes, and I seek design solutions that are poetic, integrative and surprising.
I adapt natural forms – giving them breath – and make spatial constructs and screens with metaphysical subtexts. My intent is disruptive and optimistic – that we may effectively re-imagine personal and communal ambitions.
For projects in the public space, I often take cues from a site’s physical and thematic contexts. Airport sculptures abstract wind-blown seeds. A park pavilion’s roof merges with the surrounding tree canopy. An Albuquerque installation recalls the theatre of clouds and land-forms of the four-corners region. A hospital installation uses a double-vortex as a metaphor for transformation. A recent five-part installation in an Oregon nature park magnifies microfauna to expand a theme of habitat creation. A design for Fort Worth invokes vintage toy trains for an iconic placemaker for an historic village. Appropriately, these installations have both grand and intimate aspects providing iconic presence and rewarding close encounter.
I have considerable experience successfully working with other design professionals, engineers, subcontractors, community stakeholders and administrators from multiple bureaucracies.
My sensitivity to site and continuing experiments with sculpted space and human interaction demonstrate my qualifications for, and interest in, developing works for public sites. I have a real and personal interest in developing sculptural elements and environments that feel safe, that are full of delight and that empower our imaginations. I look forward to collaborating with project designers and stakeholders.