Chris Kraus

The daughter of two disenfranchised intellectuals, Chris Kraus has forever been something of a stranger to the establishment. Moving from Connecticut to Wellington, New Zealand at an early age, a move she credits with saving her life, Kraus quickly fell in love with the punk philosophy of the late seventies.



She abandoned an early journalism career in Wellington to move to New York at age 21 to study theater.  Living in the East Village, she met many artists and writers and began making films. In the mid-80s, she met Semiotexte founder and editor Sylvere Lotringer, and in 1990, began the Native Agents fiction series, with the idea of linking first-person female writing to French theories of subjectivity.



In 1996, Kraus curated The Chance Event, a three-day "philosophy rave" held in the Nevada desert, an event which brought together philosophers, theorists, artists, garage noise bands to consider the mystery of chance.



Kraus published her first novel, I Love Dick, a work often described as an act of 'theoretical fiction' in 1997 to wide controversy.  It was soon followed by Aliens & Anorexia (2000), Video Green: Los Angeles Art and the Triumph of Nothingness (2004), and Torpor (2006).  Her latest book, Where Art Belongs (2011) explores the use of shared time in current art practices. Writing in the NY Times, Holland Cotter has called her "one of our smartest and most original writers on art and culture." Her next novel, Summer of Hate, will be published in 2012.

Chris Kraus will give a public talk at the auditorium of the Auckland Art Gallery on Tuesday October 25,  6pm, as part of the Easy Listening Programme, a collaboration between Artspace, Elam and Auckland Art Gallery.



Chris Kraus visit is in partnership with Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne.

Poster designed by Kyu Lim ►

GRAVITY AND GRACE FILM SCREENING
MONDAY 7 NOVEMBER, 6PM
 

Described by Kraus as “an amateur intellectual’s home video”, Gravity and Grace (1995, 87:31) deals with the notion of faith and belief in the context of Nineties Millennialism. Shot primarily in New Zealand, the film centres on the relationship between the despairing Ceal Davis and the charismatic ufologist Thomas Armstrong, as well as on that of two small-time hustlers in Auckland, Grace, a beautiful Maori girl, and Gravity, who is “driven, though to nothing in particular”.

Written and directed by Chris Kraus, featuring actors: Jennifer Ludlam, Alan Brunton, Ani O'Neill, Kristin Seth. 

Director of Photography Mairi Gunn. Art Department and crew included Kirsty Cameron, Cushla Dillon, Denise Kum, Judy Darragh and others.

In the past year, the film (described by Artforum as "dazzling") has screened in London, Berlin, Vienna, Latvia, Los Angeles, NYC, Barcelona and Copenhagen.