Christine Corday (born Laurel, Maryland 1970) is a North American Artist. Corday studied graphic and fine arts as well as the sciences which led to an Astrophysics internship in 1991 with SETI Principal Investigator Dr.Laurance Doyle at NASA Ames Research Center. In 1993, Corday worked for advertising and design agencies as a graphic and structural designer. Between 1996 and 2005, she lived and worked in Portland, Oregon; San Francisco,and Los Angeles, California; Tokyo, Japan; and Seville, Spain. During this time, Corday's work evolved solely in the fine arts, specifically into form such as sculpture and architecture.
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Corday's first steel work entitled UNE is a three-ton form beginning the artist's PROTOIST SERIES. "PROTOIST" is a term coined by the artist to describe the intermediary state between the known and the unknown. UNE is hewn from 3 tons of raw weathering steel, standing nearly 9 feet tall with a 13 inch thick arc spanning more than 16 feet. A 2.5 foot torch-cut void runs through the center of the arc; its resulting passage replaces the artist’s hand, or the stroke, in an otherwise mechanical process and alludes to the sensory power of touch reframing the mark of man. Each piece in the series is meant to engender direct physical contact, not only to be touched but to be worn down over time by the tide of human interaction. UNE began its international tour with a debut exhibition in Chelsea under the High Line (New York City) (November 7– December 12, 2008), the Form "inspired local construction workers to make a three-inch steel effigy, which they gave to the artist as a present; what it will evoke elsewhere is anyone's guess." [1]
The PROTOIST SERIES is conceived and constructed to be consumed by the hand. "Each piece in the PROTOIST SERIES is meant to be touched, to be entered, and even to be walked upon." [2] The Forms are intervened for a sole evening or limited duration in locations—an abandoned interior, an urban alley, a marble piazza—that are selected to motivate the unexpected encounter.
AHN [1], Corday's second work in the PROTOIST SERIES was installed in the corner of a 5,000 sq. ft. art space in Greenpoint, Brooklyn: Allan Nederpelt. [2] The 300 pound carbon steel piece supports the juxtaposition of three visible dimensional planes, reminding it’s experiencer of the intersecting choices constructing reality and the impermanence/permanence of time and place. Art reviewer Enrico Gomez spoke to AHN's "grounding resonance" saying, "It optically strums like an electric bass and has considerable gravitational pull. " [3]
In 2011, the 60" x 120" (151 cm x 303 cm) maquette of PROTOIST Form ÆPI [3] was previewed during the exhibition, All That Is Unseen, curated by Meg O'Rourke and Caris Reid in New York City. The title of the Form fuses the meaning and pronunciation of the Greek root "epi" (upon) from the English words epicenter and epoch with the lost sound of Latin diphthong Æ. The Form’s torch-cut center plate is an abstraction of the figurative self as plateau or stair––standing on its plane shifts a single dimension of perception by 1 and 1/2 inches [4] thus acutely honing the senses to their most subtle realms––a quiet big bang, a floating grounded void, an intimate invitation to the unseen.
Corday lives and works in New York and has work in private collections in Dubai, Dublin, Mexico City, Madrid, Brussels, and Paris. Corday's current works include a permanent abstract installation series entitled HELDAN as well as the production of a monumental outdoor form, INSTRUMENT FOR THE OCEAN TO PLAY, that harvests tidal power to create a low-frequency sound.
In 2000, Corday moved her studio from Tokyo, Japan to Seville, Spain. The years in Spain (2000–2004), Corday's palette was limited to black. Corday created her own paint mulling raw pigment and charcoal into a synthetic polymer base to create a tar-like substance and fabricated tools for its application to raw linen and canvas. Corday moved back to the United States in 2005 to a studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn New York. She created a series of painted works as abstract blueprints for the Form HELDAN and the PROTOIST Series. In 2009, Corday's painted work entitled THAHLES [4] (72" x 216") was installed in the Richard Meier building and collection of 165 Charles Street, New York City, New York.
As seen in "Making the 9/11 Memorial" documentary by History (TV channel) and "Rising, Rebuilding Ground Zero" documentary series by the Discovery Channel, National September 11 Memorial Architect Michael Arad selected the black patina created by artist Christine Corday [5] for the finish of the bronze name parapets which carry the 2,983 victim names from the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The bronze name parapets border the edge of the North and South waterfall pools that occupy the former footprints of the North and South Towers. The selection process for the finish of the bronze was directed by KC Fabrications, the Art and Architectural fabrication company in Gardiner, New York awarded the Bronze Name Parapets through their unique engineering idea in the fabrication and installation of the Memorial. [5] “Every name has run under the palm of my hand,” Corday said. “Each name here is a life, and that’s never been lost on anyone that’s worked on this project.” [6]