Chris Colville

Instar

Instar describes the periods between successive molts of a caterpillar as it sheds its exoskeleton before reaching sexual maturity. Each molt leaves marks and scars on the body of the organism as evidence of its previous existence, similar to the marks left on the earth from natural events as well as the scars left on the landscape as we manipulate it for our needs.

I am interested in making images that translate the wonder and horror imbedded in our landscape by these manipulations. The images in this portfolio represent one sequence from a growing body of work that uses the transformative power of photography to speak to our fears of life, death, and regeneration. These images reveal visions both apocalyptic and miraculous while searching for the possibility of redemption and beauty.

Christopher Colville was born in 1974 in Tucson Arizona. After receiving his BFA in Anthropology and Photography from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and MFA in Photography from the University of New Mexico, he returned home to the Sonoran Desert and is currently living in Phoenix.

Christopher is active in the art community in Arizona and beyond. He continues to work with multiple art organizations in Arizona and is a faculty associate at Arizona State University and adjunct faculty at Scottsdale Community College. Recent awards include an Artist Project Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, a Public Art Commission from the Phoenix Commission on the Arts as well as an artist fellowship through the American Scandinavian Foundation. Most recently Christopher’s work exhibited in a solo curated by Larissa Leclair for Foto Week DC 2009.