Christina Battle Artist in Residence 2020/2021 In Community Artist in Residence These days, I’ve been thinking a lot about how it is that community might build and take shape across distance: about the tools that allow us to keep in touch, stay connected, and spread resources. I’ve been thinking about the ways that online spaces allow for this sense of spread by expanding beyond the local (nowadays often seen as one’s primary place of residence) out into neighbourhoods and geographies we may not have expected; and about how we might make this spread more tangible through the offline. How might the handmade offer potentials to feel connected to one another? What does it mean to do a thing together across distance? What role can the gift play in building relationships with strangers? How might responsibility for this place, for this land, and for one another spread out beyond our localities? During my time in residence at SNAP I look forward to taking time to try things; to make things; and to getting my hands dirty. To shifting from response mode into something more reflective; to doing things with others despite being a far; and to getting to know new localities through the perspective of distance. Christina Battle’s (Amiskwacîwâskahikan / Edmonton) artistic practice and research imagine how disaster could be utilized as a tactic for social change and as a tool for reimagining how dominant systems might radically shift. This work and research are situated around her recently completed PhD dissertation: Disaster as a Framework for Social Change: Searching for new patterns across plant ecology and online networks (2020). About the artist Christina Battle (Edmonton, Canada) has a B.Sc. with specialization in Environmental Biology from the University of Alberta, a certificate in Film Studies from Ryerson University, an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and a PhD in Art & Visual Culture from the University of Western Ontario. She collaborates with Serena Lee as SHATTERED MOON ALLIANCE and has exhibited internationally in festivals and galleries as both artist and curator, most recently at: The Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba (Brandon), The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (Colorado), Latitude 53 (Edmonton), The John & Maggie Mitchell Gallery (Edmonton), Harbourfront Centre (Toronto), Capture Photography Festival (Vancouver); Forum Expanded at the Berlinale (Berlin), Blackwood Gallery (Mississagua), Trinity Square Video (Toronto), and Untitled Art Society (Calgary). The In Community Artist Residency is made possible by the Edmonton Arts Council’s Connections and Exchanges Organizational Initiatives Grant.