Chris Bradd
The Broken Coast

Chris Bradd is a Canadian artist working in sculpture, writing, and research. He’s an active member of the Al Green Sculpture Studio Collective, as well as The Flick Collective (both based in Toronto, Canada). He holds an M.A. at the Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism at Western University, and a PhD (ABD) in the Social and Political Thought Programme at York University, where he also taught in the Humanities and Art History Departments for a decade. Chris maintains both an active exhibition and publication record. Here in Argentina, he has participated in workshops and presented work at conferences in Buenos Aires at the UBA, the Espacio Cultural Nuestros Hijos (ECuNHi) and the Centro Cultural de la Memoria Haroldo Conti.

Coming to Buenos Aires, his second home, Chris explored the potential of the image of the broken coast, in order to elide the separation between the human subject and the landscape. Through this project, Chris explored the theme of a broken coasts, real and imagined, physical and emotional. In his own words: “A few years ago, I was struck by something that I can classify neither as a thought or as a sensation – something which I can only call a pre-visual image. Less than a fully formed thought, and more than a mere feeling – like the way enduring pain can manifest a disposition of thought such that it becomes impossible to distinguish thought from pain. This ‘image’ I have come to call The Broken Coast. I want to explore the potential of the broken coast to supplant the image of the human figure, as a leitmotiv for exploring issues of alienation and empathy. While the works of poets such as Sappho come down to us filled with breaks, ellipses, and omissions, these works constitute a poetry nonetheless. Lacunae have opened new spaces for meaning, compelling novel interpretation. It is within the empty spaces of such archipelagos that I would like to carry out my exploration residency at ´ace through a series of visual media practices – drawing, video, etc. – while at the same time attempting to resist the theoretical impulse to make sense of it, to domesticate it, by giving it a home within a logical system or structure of thought.”