Kristen Althoff is an artist and graphic designer living in Chicago, IL. As co-owner of the recently defunct {fill in the blank} Gallery, she spent the last 3 years curating exhibitions with some of the finest emerging artists. Departure from this venture has freed up her time to focus on art-making, much of which has been in the form of anonymous public installations. Desiring more community engagement with the arts as well as seeing a need for empowerment through accessible methods, Kristen now holds a weekly free-school in her home. Her piece “End of Life,” for Parlour Room Projects, is the first in a series of non-anonymous installations.

For more information and to contact Kristen:
kristenalthoff.tumblr.com

** photo gallery of work can be found below the interview **

Parlour Room: As a graphic/web designer by day, you are creating digital designs that exist in an online space. Yet as an artist you seem to have a very tactile relationship with the materials you use to create your pieces. Can you talk about the dichotomy between these modes of working and how/ if, they inform or affect one another?

Althoff: I’ve always loved working with tangible materials way more than working with the computer, but went into graphic design as a means to make a living off of my art. Growing up without the Internet, I had a strong relationship with making things from scratch, often from stuff laying around my house. I was a senior in high school when we first got the Internet in my home and soon all of my making was in this virtual world as I taught myself how to code websites and use programs like Photoshop. I actually think these modes are a lot more alike than one would initially think. Both rely heavily on composition, color, and other design basics as I use supporting “evidence” to solve a problem.

As the Internet becomes more and more accessible the line between electronic media and more tangible forms of art is often blurred: Artists document and share their work in an online space—removing the tangible qualities from the art—while digital media strives to be more tangible with interactive features and an attempt at emotional connection. I’m interested in the ways these two worlds are intertwined but ultimately stray from using the computer in my art mainly because I sit in front of it for so many hours of the day as it is.

Althoff: This is my first installation that I’ve attached my name to. The other work I’ve made has been anonymously installed in public spaces. I think originally I became interested in installation work because I was never great at painting or drawing, or at least to the degree that I was really able to develop a style that I felt good about. I grew up crafting and sewing and turned to this after college when I decided to start making recycled fashion. It wasn’t until recently that I started seeing how all of my art worlds intersected and realized that installation was the answer to my frustration with other forms of art-making. I really love the description of installation used in your question because I’m very interested in the fusion of art and life. This fusion is the main reason why I do public installations—I really enjoy the placement of something unexpected as a little interrupter of daily routine.

Althoff: “End of Life” refers to a product that has been consumed or used up, particularly in regards to plastic materials. I thought this name was very fitting not just because this piece is made from an end of life product, but also because I felt it brought into question the synthetic nature of something that appears to be very organic. This piece is made of plastic mesh but I manipulated it into organic shapes that reminded me a lot of algae under a microscope. While this plastic will never actually turn into algae, algae is now being used in plastic production. I’m very interested in this dichotomy and the space that exists between two opposing sides. I think this piece brings a lot of absolutes into question (light vs. dark, good vs. evil, synthetic vs. organic) and asks you to look somewhere in the middle.

After the gallery ended I started thinking about transition a lot. Although “End of Life” could be read as something quite sinister, I think about it more in terms of death giving rise to new life and notions of rebirth and afterlife—both spiritually and scientifically—and how that idea mirrors life and relationships. I’ve begun to notice how life is in constant flux and while transition used to be a very scary concept for me, I’ve started to become more comfortable with it as a constant.

Althoff: A few years ago I did some anonymous chalk drawings on the sidewalks of St. Louis that traced shadows cast by street lamps. I had no idea that street artist Ellis Gallagher was already doing this (and was quite famous for it), it just seemed like a natural thing to do. This was when I first really started thinking about shadows in terms of what information they gave rather than what information they took away. I have a terrible memory and it is interesting to look at the void as actually being something desirable.

I didn’t set out to make these shapes for this installation knowing that shadow would be a part of the piece. The shapes themselves were sort of happy accidents, but as soon as I saw them I knew I wanted to incorporate shadow in some way. The wonderful thing about using a “material” as intangible as shadow is that you never quite know how it will look until the piece is in its final location, and even then the shadows are constantly changing depending on the time of day. I like having that uncontrollable variable in my work.

Light and shadow are in stark contrast of each other but rarely do they ever exist in pure form. There is an endless range of grays that light and shadow create. While this piece touches on many dichotomies, I also want to draw attention to the space in between two absolutes.

Althoff: Repetition is such a large part of the natural world. My father is a math teacher and while I don’t remember much from math class, I do remember being fascinated the first time I learned about fractals. I like the idea of making a repetition and then repeating that repetition until there are layers and layers of repetitions, as with fractals.

I also find a lot of comfort in the act of doing the same thing over and over again. It allows me to lose myself in my work and find pleasure in something slightly mundane. No two repetitions ever produce exactly the same result and I like searching for the differences in each repetition.

Althoff: I think my materials choose me. I’m a recycler bordering on pack-rat if (I weren’t so organized) and I can’t bare to throw things away, especially when they come in multiples. I have a lot of random stuff stashed away just waiting to be used, including dozens of boxes of plastic straws and hundreds of sticker backs from my husband’s record label. Aesthetics are a huge part of deciding what is trash and what is treasure, but I think mostly I like the challenge of transformation.

Althoff: Artists I admire and for their use of materials and ideas are Tara Donovan, Katie Schofield, and Sandra Ono. I enjoy the work of public installation artists Streetcolor, Swoon, and Candy Chang. And because I believe music really has an influence on visuals and ideas some of the artists that inspire me the most are John Cage, Einzurstende Neubauten, Bjork, and Lincoln Johns (who happens to be my husband and often becomes my background music when we end up working in the apartment at the same time).

Althoff: Ideas and observation are my biggest inspirations. I read a lot of blogs on a lot of different subjects, but my favorites are those written about sociological studies. I like reading the comments of the blogs because you can see the range of viewpoints on any given subject. I love the rare and random conversations with strangers on public transportation—especially with the homeless and/or mentally ill because their viewpoint is unique and something that not many people are willing to acknowledge. I think having an understanding outside of my own experience is monumental to growing as a person and artist.

I also get very inspired by simple acts of making, like baking bread or knitting a sweater. I like following instructions. It allows me to be creative without putting too much of myself into something. When it comes time to create art I have a wealth of knowledge about different processes to draw upon.