Claudia J Esslinger » Ohio Artist Registry

Although each of my projects has a separate focus, commonalities are found through a central concern about inequities and the way that artistic processes can confront them, especially through the combination of digital and traditional media. It is my intention that time-based media activate the physical materials in a way that the whole is more than the parts. Additional input from collaborators adds layers of metaphor. The surprising results of these interactions are a reward for this intuitive process.  I do not seek to be didactic, but rather raise questions by juxtapositions of seductive, intriguing or humorous suggestions.  

This archive shows work that grows out of a project that connects migration and our changing climate. It includes a central video projected downward, a rotating animation, handmade sandbags, custom lighting and skeletal boat forms made of blackberry brambles. Entitled “Passages: Tales of the (Snow) Migrant”, it explores the difficulty of living through the rippling effects of climate extremes.

The central video shines down like an oculus onto a series of topographical sandbags. In the video, a performer enacts symbolic gestures wearing a worker’s coverall and a life-saving jacket.  She paddles a small red kayak in snow, an impossible task.  Water laps at the edges of the landmass that mimics a melting Antarctica.  The rising seas from this and other melting ice threaten low-lying lands causing people to migrate to find shelter and livelihood.

Around the central video, an animated life jacket floats and sandbags hold back the edges of the room. Custom lights illuminate the brambled boats, casting shadows on the floor.  The preponderance of images forms a four-dimensional collage, with active and quiet areas. The sound of waves rising on the shore fills the space. 

This project was prompted by two journeys. The first was to southern Chile, where I had the opportunity as an artist-in-residence to explore an ecological preserve and also fly over Cape Horn. I worked in the presence of ecologists and climatologists, who left southern Chile for expeditions to Antarctica. They spoke often about the melting glaciers that were causing water levels around the earth to rise. The other sojourn was a three month stay in Italy. Envisioning the migrant path through southern Italy into Europe was a daily reality, as immigrants sold wares on the streets and stories of deaths during crossings of the Mediterranean were prevalent in the news. 

These two experiences have come together in this piece. It combines concerns about the ever-present climate emergency with a focus on the human cost of that devastation. Through it we can consider the human migrant and the migrating climate with empathy and action.

Additional  tentacles that have developed outward from this project include a self-contained single channel video, video for dance performance, still images layered in light boxes and currently developing drawings.

A note on collaborators:

The performer in the video is Balinda Craig-Quijada, with whom I share concerns about the perils that immigrants face. This collaboration has generated two more projects under this title. The first is a short experimental film, and the other is a group work choreographed for dancers at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA.  My video scenography combines imagery from both the film and this installation at the Gund Gallery.  The music for the dance project is by Charlotte Malin and is amplified by audio from various bodies of water that I have recorded, from the Indian Ocean to the Southern Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea.