Christina Bertea
"Pluck the Feathers to Protect the Bird" Feathers act as EMF receptors and aim frequencies directly into birds bodies, to their detriment. Removal of feathers protects them from harm.
"Calling All Carbon Home to the Soil (where it used to be)": Regenerative agriculture restores microbes to the soil where they sequester CO2 from photosynthesis in stable forms. This is nature's elegant carbon capture technology.
"Brushing up against each other, 1000 points of connection". Our physicality may be our common ground--
through touch we can find empathy for each other —regardless of how our mental constructs, ideologies, identities differ.
"Embracing Our Place in the Nutrient Cycle" Our urine can be harvested, capturing the N and phosphorus, then diluted and used as fertilizer to grow the flower we put in the vase in our "sculptural destination point toilet seat". This reminds us we are part of nature's cycles.
Humanure fertilizer bag invoking "poo pick-up" for thermophilic composting w yard/food waste in order to spread compost on rangeland, sparking carbon sequestration. Mantra: Use Our Poo to Save Our Butts!
"Rainflower" playfully captures rain and directs it into a barrel for later use in a community garden. Galvanized sheet metal and found parts.
"Wombstone Memorial for Too Many Unwarranted Female Castrations-(medical terminology for full hysterectomy)" These "elective " surgeries extract women's "creative power centers" --for profit!
"Ghost of Sturgeons Past: Skin of our
Ancestors" is a 20' long "taxidermied" sturgeon reminding us they were that big and could be again if only we took care of our Delta waters.
"Condor Comes Back, Stepping Out of Forever"
These magnificent birds have momentarily been saved from extinction.
"Madonna and Serpent: Bowing to the Earth's Healing Wisdom" -an alabaster reference/reverence to the serpent as an enduring symbol of vegetative life force energy. Early A.D. sculptures show a friendly serpent at Mary's feet.
Sparking shifts in the collective’s consciousness is my passion. Perhaps it was the social psychology I studied or my immersion in weekend teach-ins in the Berkeley of 1967 (when so many social movements were birthing), that inspired me to aspire to being a change agent through my own “works”.
I tested affirmative action to see if a trade union would allow women into an apprenticeship program (becoming the first female union plumbing apprentice in the state); embraced an inspirited shamanic world view, modeling an antidote to capitalism’s heartless exploitation of a natural world stripped of spirit or sentience; demonstrated the viability of using alternative methods and materials to construct inner-city infill by designing and building a passive solar Rammed Earth cottage in urban Oakland; studied and implemented permaculture design principles; and became fluent in urgent water conservation strategies– promoting and installing greywater recycling and rainwater harvesting systems and homegrown composting toilets. Formerly Greywater Guerrillas, we morphed into respectable Greywater Action when, as stakeholders, we helped California craft a workable greywater code.
After working in glass and stone I tired of the art marketplace and committed to exploring how art itself could serve as a change agent. How does one push/nudge the edges of what is considered commonplace and acceptable to create a “new normal” of more sustainable behaviors? How does one engage (enchant) the public, arousing enough curiosity to open folks to new ideas and options? How do we artists present sustainability as irresistibly imaginative and fun?
Nurturing a sense of awe and wonderment at the natural world around us is another passion of mine.
For inspiration, meandering alongside the banks of a stream is my greatest pleasure; listening to the sounds of water moving, my preferred music.