My name is Carli Castellani, and I am an American artist, writer & designer. I create little worlds. This began in my childhood. I grew up in Chicago, in an old house that was filled with paintings my father had made in art school (thick oils of dead pheasants, Chianti bottles and draperies). But my father quit painting long before I was born, so the art experience I inherited and absorbed from that environment was very stagnate; in retrospect, it felt like growing up in an art morgue. I reacted to this upbringing viscerally, by assembling anything and everything I could into strange sculptural works and little altars -- objects I touched felt inherently alive and like they had something to tell me, and I loved rearranging the parts until they felt right. I also think I needed to feel energy move in a place where it otherwise felt so restricted. My intuitive (and intrinsically animistic) behavior wasn't particularly encouraged. It wasn't until later, when I started creating landscape installations, that I realized I had been making them my whole life. I also realized I play with energy, and I always have, though how I go about this play keeps evolving. I am currently working on a series of miniature puppet theaters, and I create altar pieces and other tools to help tend sacred time and space. I am particularly interested in cultivating the art experience in everyday life, and living creativity, which is the thread that connects my adventures so far.
exhibition & work highlights
The September Women Project - (Participant Artist, 30 days of Art re Feminine Wisdom & Power) 2012;
Trigger (a biannual journal devoted to narrative in the arts) - Artistic Director & Publisher (2011-12);
Status Hat Productions - Artistic Director & Publisher/Producer (2008-2012);
The Volga is Our Home - Project Artist, Exhibitions in Kazan and Astrakhan, Russian Federation (2007);
“Wheelhouse” - Participatory Installation (an art labyrinth)
Troy Night Out, Troy, NY; 2007;
"Rock On, Genghis Khan" (A Rock Opera)
(2006, two workshops "first they were puppets"; 2010 digital version);
Arts Residency, Russian Federation
(Hosts, Tatarstan Puppet Theater and Composer's Union, November - December, 2004);
Playthings (Static Installation) - JEM Gallery, Seattle, 2004;
"Games of Sticks and Stones” - Participatory Installation (a playable gameroom)
Hugo House 6th Annual Cultural Inquiry, Seattle, WA; 2003;
Synthetica - Mail-Art 'zine, published in late 80s/early 90s;
Fencer (Foil) 1982-89;
Child Psychic/Tarot Reader 70s/80s
prose & articles
"Falling Asleep On Earth" (2010);
"Small Talk with Robots" (2010)
posted February 9, 2013
2012-13 Collage & Sacred Tools (Pamphlets & Journals)
