On Tuesday, June 21, 2022, the Lake Region Arts Council (LRAC) Board awarded the $5,000 annual LRAC Fellowship to Moorhead artist and professor, Chris Walla. Miranda Lape, the LRAC Grants Manager, sat down with Walla to get to know the Fellow for the year.
Miranda Lape (ML): Tell me a bit about yourself.
Chris Walla (CW): I live and work in Moorhead, MN, and I teach sculpture at Minnesota State University Moorhead. I've been here about 20 years now. I love working with artists and I have some amazing students. I have a nice life here.
I’m originally from the west coast, born in Los Angeles, and lived most of my young life in the Seattle area. I graduated from Western Washington University with my BFA in sculpture, and went to the University of Wisconsin Madison for graduate school (MFA). I moved to Moorhead right after graduate school.
Photo of Chris Walla working, taken at Minnesota State University Moorhead in 2020.
ML: What was the “thing that started it all” when it came to your artistic journey?
CW: I had been considered a creative kid, but I didn’t take it art seriously as a career until I was in community college. I was taking a ceramics class and was asked to manage the ceramics studio. As I worked in the studio I started to realize how excited I was to exercise my creativity and be around others who were passionate about making art. It was during this time that I realized this is something I want to do for the rest of my life.
ML: You teach sculpture at MSUM, but you’ve also done art in a variety of other mediums, including textiles. What is your favorite medium to work with right now?
CW: Over the course of my career I’ve worked with a wide variety of media. I started in ceramics, but I found that the visual and material vocabulary of sculpture had so much potential to explore. I find that the idea drives how I use materials to best communicate the concept.
I have been working with the same materials pretty steadily now for about six or seven years. My work has been focused on communication, text or representations of language. A word by itself can have multiple interpretations.
What happens to an interpretation when you physically manifest something as ephemeral as language? Working with ball-chain, allows for a subtle kinetic-ness, depth and form that does not translate in images. You have a body relationship to the object that is different than seeing words on your phone, computer, or book. The intersection of the poetry of words and materiality holds a lot of potential and beauty for me.
ML: Yes, I’ve noticed that your work tends to incorporate words. How do you pick the words and phrases for your pieces?
"All Three Counts (April 20th, 2021)", Wood, Paint, Metal Mesh, Plexiglas, Ball Chain, 2021. Image features a white oval rim filled with pink towards the top of the image, from which hangs many strands of ball chain in the shape of the word “guilty”. Certain parts of the dangling chains are emphasized to repeat the word “guilty” three times.
CW: Word choice has been driven by different motivations at different times. There was a period of time that I was trying to create a narrative within a body of work that was deeply personal. Communication is such an essential human need. We all want to be heard.
However living in the times that we do, we often experience communication in isolation with text messages and social media. It is not face-to-face. Words fascinate me, because growing up dyslexic, words were difficult, and rather abstract for me.
Recently the language I chose helps me process what’s happening in the world. My work lately has been reactionary, responding to current events. In this social media driven environment, making something that people can slow down and contemplate is important to me. Contemplation is much like listening.
With the world as polarized as it is… I want to reach out and say something that people may consider, and if they don’t agree, still be able to appreciate it. There’s a power in that for me.
ML: As our 2022 Fellow (selected from a highly competitive pool of 11 applicants), how are you feeling?
"Constant Refrain", Wood, Paint, Metal Mesh, Plexiglas, Ball Chain, 2020. Image features a white oval rim filled with red towards the top of the image, from which hangs many strands of ball chain in the shape of the words “OOOOH NO”, written in block letters. The “OOOOH” is outlined at the bottom of the chain in rainbow colors, while the “NO” hangs lower, passing through the middle of the second and third Os and is emphasized in black at the bottom of the chains.
CW: I am very grateful. My experience as an artist is that it can be quite solitary. There is a validation in being supported by a group of professionals who acknowledge your work. It’s meaningful and I’m incredibly grateful for it. Minnesota is a state that supports culture and artists and not in a superficial way.
The state provides real opportunities for artists to further their work and contribute to our communities in meaningful way. Knowing the level of talent out there, receiving this Fellowship was a lovely surprise.
ML: What would you tell someone else thinking about applying for an LRAC grant?
CW: When applying for an LRAC grant, it is helpful to have a grasp of the larger vision for what your has to say. Why is your voice important? What does it contribute to the community you live in? Outlining those objectives can help you shape that mission to for an opportunity that a grant can provide. You can strike a balance that allows your to be open-ended with your creativity, and share with your community.
ML: Beyond the Fellowship, what do you hope the future has in store for your art?
"The Big One", Wood, Paint, Light, Metal Mesh, Plexiglas, Ball Chain, Chandelier Crystals, 2018. Image is of a white, decorative, rectangular box mounted towards the top of a wall, the front of which has a chandelier seemingly embedded into it. The bottom of the box is open, and many, many strands of ball chain hang from it, almost forming a sheet, upon which is written in sideways sparkly letters, “UH OH”. Light comes both from the candleholders of the chandelier, which have candle-shaped light bulbs placed in them, and from the bottom of the box to illuminate the words.
CW: Although I am past the age where I would be considered an emerging artist, I want to feel relevant, and that my art is contributing to a larger conversation. I hope that I continue to grow, learn and explore. I want to contribute in a vital way to the world of contemporary art.
Walla will be recognized as the incoming LRAC Fellow at the LRAC annual meeting, taking place Tuesday, July 19, 2022 at the Historic Holmes Theatre in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Our FY21 Fellow, Bethany Lacktorin, will also be giving her final report of what she has accomplished during her Fellowship year. Those who wish to attend the meeting may register by clicking here.
