Photo courtesy of the artist.
“Some would call me a trickster, an astute observer of the present, forcing renegotiations with the past. I am a storyteller, a traveler through multiple realms of perception, and a nurturer.”
Maybe you have seen his murals, spilling off the wall in riotous colors all over San Francisco. Or his drawings, which are equal parts reinterpreted Black mythology and folklore, and part poetry manifested on paper, or any other medium he chooses. The art of Christopher Burch has a way of drawing you in with its beauty and then directly hitting you at the core of your humanity in the blink of an eye. With his upcoming show at Arcana that opens this week, this St. Louis born San Francisco artist and musician has a lot to be proud of.
Photo courtesy of the artist.
Eyes stare out, present and aware, from dark portraits, the subjects rendered in grayscale, almost photorealistic detail, save for the otherworldly elements they possess. A butterfly, delicate and ephemeral, obscures the face of one. A hand splayed wide with manicured nails, wearing rings on every finger, on closer inspection has eyes, their gaze slipping sideways. The subjects manage to look both like someone you know and like beings pulled from other worlds. The two elements combined give the sense that Burch has somehow traveled into the world of folklore himself to bring the art into being.
Through his works, Burch investigates the effect of intergenerational trauma and shared experience, and how they affect the shared Black cultural psyche. Intertwining this with social justice and spirituality, he challenges societal expectations, all within a world of his own imaginings. To reach his conceptual goals, his mediums travel through painting, drawing, sculpture, and music. “Primarily, my choices with medium focus on how I can make the most human and honest expressions with my hands, because my first experience with art was through drawing. Any medium is ultimately drawing as a means of communicating knowledge,” Burch says of his process.
Photo courtesy of the artist.
Each of his works has a way of containing a complete story that has a beginning and an end. “The basis of my work is to communicate my genuine human experience. The depths of what I lived through, the reality of what my family and friends have lived through. The narratives I create in my practice are a vehicle for translating those realities,” he explains.
When asked what he wants people to take away from his work, he says simply, “That we, as human beings, know very little. Our humanity is deepened when we allow the unknown to exist.”
You can catch Christopher Burch at his opening this Saturday at Arcana. He will be there with his collaborator, Rasul Grayson to provide music as “The Revenge of the Four Fives.” “What we create is aligned with the radical imagination. We exist outside genre to create moments of genuine human expression.” You can find their music on Bandcamp.
His murals can be found all over the city, but if you want to go see them for yourself, a good place to start might be at Turk and Leavenworth and the African American Arts and Cultural Center. You can find him on Instagram under @Goya_goon.
