Christian Orellana
Artist Bio
Christian Orellana Bauer (b. Cuenca, Ecuador) is a multi/interdisciplinary musician, visual artist, poet, and filmmaker working in a wide variety of mediums. They are interested in many subjects, some of which include language and its relationship to culture, ethnocentric vs. ethnorelativist viewpoints, pluralism, ecology/climate collapse, the idea of cultural belonging and its relationship to race, melancholy, humor, and the aesthetic experience. They hope to make generally approachable work that promotes thought, discussion, and at times joy within viewers. They graduated with a B.A. in Arts and Letters with a focus on various mediums in art, the humanities, and the social sciences from Portland State University. Additionally they recently completed the Portfolio Program at the Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC). They have shared their work in galleries, events, and publications around Portland and Oregon.
Piano: “Be A Bridge”
Inspired by personal experience and informed by research from psychologist Batja Mesquita on the different roles and impacts emotions have within cultures, the piano “Be A Bridge” is a design which explores concepts of cultural barriers, translation, and decoding. It seeks to question what a universal language is by contrasting the imagery of music theory with the idea of translation in search of what tensions exist between them. The title is also an homage to the musical term (bridge). The piece encourages listening, stronger attempts at understanding, and empathy to both connect and celebrate these cultural differences, recognizing there is much to learn from varying perspectives if one is willing to look past their own culturally constructed conceptions of what defines reality.