Portrait of CHRISTINE FERRERA
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CHRISTINE FERRERA

About the Artist

Christine Ferrera is a performance artist, writer and comedian. Since moving to Baltimore in 2007, she has created a vivid and idiosyncratic body of multi-media performance. She has been honored to perform at The Contemporary Museum, Center Stage and the Transmodern Performance Festival, among many others. Her work has appeared on NPR’s The Story, WYPR’s The Signal and the podcasts You/Me/Them/Everybody, Digression Sessions and Learn To Take A Joke. In 2013, she was the recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award. She was a featured solo performer in the Amsterdam Fringe Festival and her play Stellar Cellar premiered at the Charm City Fringe Festival in 2014. Ferrera self-published a visual book about her decade-long correspondence with Starbucks Coffee Company titled, Starbux Diary: My 10-year Journey to Caffeinated Enlightenment, which was included in City Paper’s Top Ten Baltimore Books of 2015 and described as “Hilariously personal.” In 2017, she was a featured performer for Wham City Comedy's (Adult Swim/IFC) national tour and comedy festivals throughout the U.S. She was recently named a Sonheim Prize Semi-finalist and GBCA Baker Artist Award finalist for 2018.​  

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Artist's Statement

I began my artistic career as a visual artist. However, after completing several series of paintings and artist books, I discovered a narrative thread running through my work and made the leap to time-based media. Inspired by the multi-media compositions of Laurie Anderson and the experimental humor of Andy Kaufman, my current practice lives at the (dangerous!) intersection of performance art and comedy. Ultimately, I strive to make work that blurs the line between the two. Whether in the form of stand-up, video art or experimental theatre, my intimate stories begin with a familiar experience but inevitably veer into unpredictable terrain, revealing their emotional core. On stage, I share the surprising, whimsical and vulnerable aspects of myself in order to connect with audiences through storytelling.

Featured Work

Photos

Awkward Pauzez the Digital Comic is a bizarre comedy routine in which I confront my deepest fears by telling jokes with pre-recorded punchlines. The uncomfortable silence between the jokes draws attention to the pathos of the comic.
Cats, Criminals & Comedians: The Untold Herstory of Feminist Performance Art is a darkly comical theatre piece in the guise of an academic lecture. Using real and invented historical figures, the piece satirizes and critiques the feminist performance art genre while illuminating the very real struggles of women in a patriarchal art world. As the story progresses, we see how systemic misogyny programs women to loathe and undermine themselves as well as antagonize each other, thereby reinforcing the power structure. The analysis becomes a rigorous cultural interrogation pursuing the question: Why do we (as a society) hate women? The action reaches a catharsis as the lecturer comes to terms with her own feminine identity. Cats, Criminals & Comedians is a densely layered and sly homage to the tenacious, innovative and radical spirit of women.
Google Art Video is a series of strange encounters between an artist and a belligerent version of herself. As the women discuss art, each represents a different side in a dialogue about the dynamics of creativity and the self-doubt with which women artists often struggle. This piece marks a pivotal shift in my work - the point at which I decided to pursue my life long dream and attempt stand-up comedy.
I perform darkly absurd stand-up in clubs, conference rooms and crawl spaces internationally. Always looking to surprise and challenge myself, I thrive on doing comedy that verges on performance art. My style has been described (by me) as, "self-deprecating Third-wave Feminism."
Stellar Cellar is a journey through a woman’s subconscious, an evocation of Dionysus and a radio talk show about wine. As the host samples each vintage, her memories are conjured – funnel cake and dippin’ dots on the boardwalk, monks in Macedonia, the loss of her virginity in the back of a Honda Civic. Call-in questions, a car salesman from beyond the grave, and a dystopian weather and traffic report move her further into the deep layers of her psyche until a fox and a bear appear, revealing the sorrows of the animals. Finally, the shade of Emily Dickinson guides the host into the outer reaches of the spirit-filled world.
Starbux Diary: My 10-year Journey to Caffeinated Enlightenment began in 2005 when I was at a Starbucks store and noticed that their customer feedback cards read, "We'd love to hear your thoughts..." Taking their invitation literally, I conceived of an endurance art project in which I jot down my thoughts about life, love and art each day on a comment card and mail the original to Starbucks Coffee's customer relations department. Sometimes, Starbucks writes back. A selection of diary entries, drawings and actuarial tables, this book commemorates the 10th anniversary of my uniquely humorous take on endurance art.