CONTACT
Email with inquiries:
rackleystudio (AT) gmail (DOT) com
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BIO
Chris Rackley is an interdisciplinary artist who experiments with video, sculpture, and drawing to explore memory and perception. He was born in South Carolina and grew up in shopping malls in South Carolina and Georgia where he developed a keen awareness of overlooked and hidden spaces. He received his BA in Studio Art from Davidson College and his MFA in Painting from George Mason University. Rackley’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. His most recent awards include a 2022 Creative Support for Individuals Grant and a 2022 Kolman & Reeb Gallery Project Space Grant. Rackley currently lives and works in Rochester, MN.
STATEMENT
I am interested in the power of objects to serve as memory triggers that can help us to maintain or re-establish continuity between our past and present selves. I am currently focused on recreating architectural elements and tableaus from the ten years I was a mall brat. I use a variety of media to create representations of fragments of spaces I barely remember. Each representation is at a different scale to the others, making it impossible for all the of the pieces to add up to a contiguous whole. This addresses both the intense longing we can feel for a lost home and the precariousness of memories that hang unconnected in the mind.
I create opportunities for viewers to shift their point of view by requiring them to peer inside or around objects in the gallery. I want viewers to feel as though they are moving between being inside and outside of an experience. I hope this perceptual shift helps viewers become more aware of how they reconstruct their own memories in relation to their sense of self.
COLLABORATIONS + COMMUNITY PROJECTS
Occasionally, I work collaboratively on projects and installations with other artists. I also periodically offer workshops and creative opportunities for communities. See those projects by following the links below.