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Christian French: Awaken the Dead to the Dreams of the Living
November 4, 2017 @ 8:00 am - 3:00 pm PDT
The Grocery is pleased to host an installation and performative work by Christian French. Appropriate to the season, a transformation of the artist manifests in the form of a wake and celebration. Read on for timing and details.
3:00pm – 10:00pm, Saturday November 4
12-5pm Sunday November 5
“Awaken the Dead to the Dreams of the Living” is a ritual pre-enactment of the memorial phase of an artist’s life and work, a mix-tape of sorts. Autobiographical elements weave into French’s work, and each project, including this one, is a form of self-portrait. On one side, an exhibition of select works spanning a career of over two decades in Seattle. On the other, a performative lying-in-state that puts the exhibition into the context of the social traditions of a wake. Please bring your well wishes and funny stories, and come help Christian celebrate the turning of the seasons, as well as a transition into a new phase in his work. Visitors will be able to duplicate French’s cassette mix-tape to bring home.
Saturday Nov 4: Wake for the Artist, Christian French
3:00 – 6:00p – Viewing (and mix-tape duping) hours:
6:00 – 8:00p – Artist lying in state
7:15 – 7:30p – Toasts
7:30 – 9:30 – Live music and merry making, with music by El Mariachi Monarcas, and catering by That Brown Girl Cooks
Sunday Nov 5: Exhibit viewing and cassette tape duping
12:00 –5:00p
Christian French is a Seattle based artist trained in photography and experimental cinema. French’s work ranges across mediums and approaches. In addition to photography, he has also worked with found objects, shipping containers, trophies, spandex and constellations. In his interest in the structure of narrative and a focus on the relationship of the viewer to the world they pass through, French’s works aim to inspire repeated encounters. He has received commissions through the Seattle Office of Art & Culture, as well as recognition and awards from Artist Trust, and 4 Culture. He served as an artist-in-residence at Sound Transit where he developed “Stellar Connections,” the wayfinding pictograms for the original 13 light rail stations.