Autumn Christopher | Astral

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Autumn Christopher, "Astral (work in progress)," 2022

video still. Courtesy of the Gallery.

This exhibition shares work by a recent graduate from Thompson Rivers University (TRU), as part of the Gallery’s annual partnership with TRU’s Visual Arts department. Selected by Craig Willms, Assistant Curator, Kamloops Art Gallery, each year this exhibition highlights an emerging artist from TRU’s Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) graduating class, giving the artist an opportunity to work with a professional curator to create new work for a professional exhibition space outside the context of school. This year the work of Autumn Christopher is presented.

In Astral, Autumn Christopher uses digital media to explore lucid dreams and astral projection. Christopher’s final BFA project initiated an exploration of astral projection, which is understood as an out-of-body experience of subconscious travel. The artwork resulting from these explorations has included paintings, digitally rendered images and animation that capture moments and segments of his lucid dreams. Citing Robert Monroe’s Journeys Out of the Body and using a dream journal, Christopher recreates his subconscious experiences through vivid and surreal animation and digital imagery.

Through this project Christopher incorporates elements from Japanese anime and science fiction, found audio, and point-of-view imagery to immerse the viewer in the experience of his astral projections. His animations tie together multiple dreams and lucid moments with out-of-body recollections to share an embodied exploration of astral projection. In turn, Christopher’s work creates an experience for the viewer to consider the possibilities of travel in other levels of consciousness.  

Autumn Christopher (Secwepémc and Nlaka’pamux) was born and currently resides in Kamloops. Christopher received his BFA form TRU in 2022. He is currently working on a mural for the old Fortune Motel in Kamloops on behalf of the Canadian Mental Health Association.