FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 17, 2008
Media Contact: George Cagala (760) 750-4012
 
CSUSM Art Professors Launch United & Severed Exhibit June 28 in Escondido

Two faculty members from the visual and performing arts department at California State University San Marcos will present an exhibit entitled United & Severed beginning June 28 in the museum of the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, 340 N. Escondido Blvd. Opening reception runs from 6-9 p.m. and includes live music, cocktails and hors d’oeurves, and conversations about select artworks by education staff throughout the evening. Admission is $10 (free to center members). The exhibit continues through Nov. 30.

Based on the experiences of people living with traumatic injuries, United & Severed incorporates video, audio, dance and real life stories to create a multi-layered sensorial environment, the project considers the physical reality of lives redefined by traumatic injury and invites contemplation of human resilience, according to exhibit creators Kristine Diekman and Karen Schaffman.

“We started this work because there is so much focus now on the war wounded,” says Diekman. “Although we ultimately didn’t incorporate that into the video, it was the original inspiration for representing stories of those who have suffered trauma.”

The current exhibit incorporates the stories of three women who have experienced extreme physical trauma. Sculpture by local artists Anna O’Cain and Richard Keely is also featured.

Diekman says “having the stories of the three women in our video represented is a political statement about how we understand bodies, treat people with disabilities, and hopefully bring us closer to a new understanding of our bodies as well.”

“We have created a poetic work that shares the kinesthetic and sensorial experiences of those who have more limited mobility.  Hopefully, the project help others understand what it’s like and come closer to their own body awareness,” says Schaffman. “In our culture, people tend to avoid relating to people with obvious disabilities. It makes them uncomfortable because they’re unsure of how to behave. Do you reach out and offer to shake the person’s hand or not?”

Schaffman’s artistic and academic research is based on dance, performance, and cultural perceptions of the body.  For her, the work also has autobiographical references.  She herself has experienced shock trauma to her body, when a few years ago two Rottweilers seriously mauled her, and she required reconstructive surgery to her left arm.  The experience has altered the way she understands the body and has created more empathy for others in the process of transformation and healing.

For Diekman, it’s less personal but no less passionate.

“I’m interested in how traumatic events slice through the narrative of life,” she says.  “How do the participants in our work rewrite their narratives, and how do we, as artists, also rewrite their narratives in order to gain a deeper understanding of this experience?”

Diekman has worked for several years in video and new media. She has received awards from New York State Council on the Arts, New York Foundation for Arts, Paul Robison Foundation, Rhode Island State Arts Council, and is a 2001-2002 recipient of a Media Fellowship from California State Council on the Arts. Her work has shown in festivals and on television throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia.

Schaffman is a dancer, performer, choreographer, writer who earned her Ph.D. in dance history and theory from University of California. She is also a graduate of the European Dance Development Center (The Netherlands), where she studied with leaders in the field of experimental dance, contact improvisation, improvisational choreography, and performance.  She has taught at UC Davis and numerous improvisational festivals and schools internationally.  Known for her collaborative and collective efforts, she was founding member of Lower Left (1994-2006), and currently works with improvisationally-driven dance artists locally in San Diego, Downstream Media, and the European-based Veronika Blumstein Group.

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