chr|stIne werthe|m is a former painter with a PhD in literature and semiotics from Middlesex University, London. She is a poet, critic, curator and performer, the author of mUtter-bAbel (Counterpath Press, 2013), +|‘me’S-pace (Les Figues Press, 2006), and Corpus, a chapbook from Triage (2006); also editor of the anthology Feminaissance, (Les Figues Press), and with Matias Viegener co-editor of Séance (Make Now Press), and The The /n/oulipian Analects (Les Figues Press). In 2004 she was awarded a grant from The Annenberg Foundation to organize a series of conferences on contemporary writing: Séance (2004), nOoulipo (2005), Impunities (2006), Feminaissance (2007), Untitled (2008), Untitled NY (2009). Her poetry appears in numerous anthologies, including Against Expression, The & Now Awards: The Best Innovative Writing, I’ll Drown My Book, The LA Telephone Book, and Out of Nothing. Her critical writing on art, literature and aesthetics has been widely published including in, Cabinet, X-tra, The Quick and the Dead, Issues in Contemporary Art, and Patarcitical Interogation Techniques, vol. 3. From 1995 – 2000 she taught in the Fine Art Department of Goldsmiths College, and at the Slade School of Fine Art. Since 2001 she has taught critical studies and creative writing at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.

Her performances include sound poems, puppet plays, and vocal tributes to Valie Export, Jean-Pierre Brisset and Samuel Beckett. She performs widely in the US and abroad–Counterpath, Denver, the University of Colorado, Boulder, the Echo Park Film Center, University of Western Sydney, Melbourne University, La Sorbonne, Birkbeck College, London, amongst others.

With her sister Margaret, she co-directs the Institute For Figuring, (IFF), curating exhibitions and events on the intersection of art, science and mathematics. The IFF has exhibited internationally, including at The Hayward Gallery London,  The Science Museum, Dublin, The Smithsonian, Denver Art Museum, the Museum of Jurassic Technology, LA, and Museum Kunst der Westkuste, Germany. The IFF has received numerous grants  from The Andy Warhol Foundation, The Annenberg Foundation, Orphiflamme and others.

Since 2006 the IFF has curated an international art-science community project called the Crochet Coral Reef, of which Donna Haraway has said, “Hooray for all the work, play, thought, and precious bodily fluids that went into making this ongoing art!”  The project has been exhibited worldwide. In 2014  it will be seen at NYU, Abu Dabi. (For more info and pics, see the IFF page on this site.) In 2011 the sisters received the  Theo Westenberger Grant for Outstanding Female Artists from the Autry National Center for their work on the Reef.

For booking information please contact wertheim@calarts.edu

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