Meet: Erika Narhi-Martinez and Christopher Willauer
Why you should know them: Erika Narhi-Martinez and Christopher Willauer have been busy drawing, sculpting and performing, often side by side, in Iowa City. Narhi-Martinez, 22, and Willauer, 21, are students at the University of Iowa who recently completed a residency with Public Space One in Iowa City. They are now collaborating on a performance art project they plan to share with the public from Nov. 17-21 at the University of Iowa Studio Arts building's Porch Gallery.
Narhi-Martinez, from Cedar Rapids, said she focuses on creating ink drawings that portray Americans "in a humorous light," such as a series of drawings of a woman on fast food wrappers. She has shown her work at Old Brick Church and Community Center in Iowa City and in a book exhibition in the University of Iowa's North Hall.
Willauer, from Dubuque, uses performance art, sculpture, video and installations as mediums to focus on the human body and peoples' relationships with their own bodies. He has also shown his work at Old Brick and North Hall as well as the Porch Gallery at the University's studio arts building.
What my medium is and why I enjoy it: Narhi-Martinez: I like ink because sometimes I can control it and get very fine lines, but other times it can be completely messy. I think that really works with the kind of characters that I draw, because it gives them a sort of loose energy, and it helps make flaws within them that I try and bring out.
Willauer: I would say performance and my sculpture and video work, just because I focus on the body, so it only seems right, I guess, to use the body as the medium. It usually falls on the spectrum somewhere between erotic and violent, and I think those themes become most visceral when you're presented with the actual body.
Thoughts I hope to provoke with my art: Narhi-Martinez: I'm trying to show what I see when I look at America in general. There are a lot of things that I think people should pay attention to more closely than they do now. I mean, things like fast food, obesity … just a general unawareness of their surroundings or other people. So I try to kind of bring those into light comically, so it's not completely aggressive … it's more, I want to make people laugh and wonder "why am I laughing?"
Willauer: I feel like there has been anxiety developed around the body, and that's something I don't entirely agree with or appreciate. I see the body as this, like, means of the universal language that anyone and everyone can understand, because we all have a body. So, I hope to convey these concepts, depending on each project, about the body and communication with it.
What I'm working on now: Narhi-Martinez: I'm working on my first children's book. … I say that loosely. I like the format of very simple language, but direct, along with images that draw in attention from children or the adults that read them, but the content itself might be a little unsuitable for children. … Right now it's about a young man named Lester who develops a pimple that grows to enormous proportions. … It's kind of tongue-in-cheek right now.
Willauer: I'd say I'm focused … on a recent project I just did about these aspects of the body that becomes natural for us to be grossed out by them and sort of calling attention to that. Not necessarily to beautify them, but just to see that there's no reason to be as grossed out by them. … I guess I'm also working on, sculpturally, trying to make props that can work as an extension of my body. … (Narhi-Martinez and I are) trying to make these kind of fingertip extensions that will be used in a sort of dramatic fashion.
Other artists I'm drawn to or influenced by: Narhi-Martinez: David Dunlap and Kalmia Strong.
Willauer: Heidi Wiren-Bartlett and Anna Mendieta.