New and Impervious to Natural Elements is an exhibition and gallery activation of sculptural glass, photography, and motion-activated neon lights by artist, Christen Baker. This work explores the complex interplay between our internal and external worlds and examines the aesthetics and structural elements of built environments. Baker’s specific use of glass and light has deep ties to our desires, which fuels her interest in mapping the visceral, physical, digital, and ephemeral experiences of hyper-attention. These materials possess qualities of necessity, utility, optics, and opulence that resonate deeply with our psyches. This work arises from the collision of intuition and observation that Baker experiences daily, and is an evaluation of perception, development and disrepair. This intangible feeling is the foundation for her exploration of the economy of attention and desire, as it relates directly to the necessity for care in our current moment. With this work, Baker articulates the slippage that exists in built environments contributed by exponential growth, surveillance, digital technologies, streams of material use and waste, and the architecture of information hierarchies.

About the artist

Christen Baker is a multidisciplinary artist that explores the intersection of our internal and external worlds. With a BFA in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA in Glass from Tyler School of Art and Architecture, she merges technology and visual art across mediums like glass, neon, sculpture, 3D rendering and photography. Baker’s work delves into how attention and desire influence material use, space, and information hierarchies. She has completed residencies at Belger Arts in Kansas City MO, The International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemet, Hungary, The Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco, and received the Leroy Nieman Fellowship in Glass at Ox-Bow School of Art. Recently moved from Philadelphia, PA, she continues to explore the geographies of public spaces and objects, real and imagined, in Indianapolis, IN.

The exhibition is made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Efroymson Family Fund and Ruth Arts.