Cristina Silaghi is a Christchurch-based artist working in drawing, painting and photography. She completed her Master of Fine Arts degree in painting with the University of Canterbury in 2009. Cristina is interested in the relationship between modes of making and in the possibility of dialogue between artistic practices. She has initiated and designed Colour of Distance (2011-2012), an interdisciplinary project providing a platform of inquiry and expression for artists working from different locations in different media. Cristina has been involved in education and art education, has participated to national and international exhibitions and conferences over the last seven years, and is currently conducting doctoral research in Art History and Theory with the University of Canterbury.

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My drawings explore the relationship between place, memory and experience. They reach visual form through my process-oriented engagement with themes and media. I seek to retain the directness of drawing in my paintings, collages and photographs, which continue to explore the dialogue between media and expression. Actual experiencing, abstracting and imagining coexist in my works on paper, where place is articulated as line, tone, shape, or rhythm. 

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Participating to the Christchurch/Sendai project has allowed me to reflect, from an artistic perspective, on the challenges that the year 2011 brought along. When unexpected, traumatic changes occur in the world of today, everyone witnesses the effects. We are all connected. In the wake of such events, when considerable difficulties affect our communities, little room may be left for the practice of art. However, when art-making becomes again possible, it offers unique opportunities to record the touch of time upon our lives, thoughts and practices. Drawing reflects the attention of artists to life in the world. Its very practice suggests that solutions to our problems are always at hand. The Christchurch/Sendai project highlights the role of art in overcoming difficulty, providing an occasion of dialogue between differently located communities brought together by experience as well as making. 

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website: www.cristinasilaghi.com