Claudia Esslinger

Biography

From http://www.claudiaesslinger.com/
"Claudia Esslinger is a visual artist working with media installations, video projections and collaborative performance. A common thread throughout her projects is a poetic exploration of inequities in both humanity and nature. By juxtaposition of challenging, seductive, intriguing or humorous elements, she opens the work to a wide range of interpretation. The compelling aspects might be an imagined device or a sensual surface but there is often a twist to that magnetism: a flaw or a danger that complicates the image.
"As visceral, sculptural props and experimental forms lend physicality to both her video and installation work they are meant to welcome the participant. The texture of rawhide, rust covered twigs, the electronic pulse of a moving image, the sound of machines or the collaborative soundtrack from a composer all energize the installation spaces, inviting the visitor to interact with the project. By inviting the visitors to participate through bodily movement or selection of elements she empowers them to author their own narrative.
"Working with dancers and composers has resulted in richly textured work that has been performed internationally or screened at international film festivals. For this work, video has either been prepared beforehand or has been controlled live during the concert using the same software that has enabled participants in the gallery to interact with her work.
"Esslinger has been the recipient of six Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowships and a New Forms Regional Grant (NEA). Recent artist residencies include the Omora Ethnobotanical Preserve (2009), Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, CA (2007), Singing Pictures workshop in Seoul, South Korea (2000) and the Grafikwerkstaadt in Dresden, Germany (1999)."

Claudia Esslinger creates video installations paired with audio elements that act as investigations of hierarchy. The artist examines the roles of the powerful versus the powerless as they are affected by societal institutions. Through the viewers own physical presence or contemplation, he or she is invited to interact with and play a role in Esslingers multi-media works.
Esslinger currently teaches printmaking, digital imaging, video and installation at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH. The artists work has been exhibited throughout the United States as well as internationally at media festivals. Esslinger is the recipient of four individual fellowships and a New Forms Regional Grant, a professional development grant from the Ohio Arts Council, among other awards.
Esslingers work was exhibited in Physical Landscapes: Between Body and Mind at SPACES in 1999.