News, Events & Inspirations :

 2012

April
Going through some old travel photos from my trip last year. Here's some new portraits I captured in Leh, Ladakh (click here). Beautiful region of India. Striking really and the ethnic mix is interesting.

February
So I've decided to hold off on returning to Korea for a little bit. Instead, I've decided to concentrate on acting and see what Hawaii has to offer in production work.

January
I've worked on some commercial and was on an episode of the TV show, Hawaii Five-0. Speaking part. I suppose I have travel to thank for that. Read about my experience here (pt 1,  pt 2 ) Check out my acting updates at www.christinekaaloa.net



 2011

September
Am back in the States after completing my contract in Korea and following a 7 months impromptu trip through India, Thailand, Bali, Malaysia and Cambodia. It feels like such a small amount of countries but believe me, the trip was long.

Grrrl Traveler site is continuing steadily and has its own Facebook Fan page. The new year is coming up and so much is going on. Plans are a bit up in the air at the moment and could swing either way. Am taking acting scene studies with Scott Rogers and Eric Nemoto, as well as, taking up Zumba, Kickboxing , Boxing and snorkeling to keep active. But the travel road ultimately calls again.

July-August
I'm teaching at a Musical Summer Camp in South Korea. I'm directing elementary students to act, sing and dance in musical performances such as Ali Baba and Peter Pan. It's challenging work; English is not their first language and I only know survival Korean. Additionally, we get a day to outline our musical, create a performance around it and a 5 days to teach the kids their part. But I love performance and directing. Photos and story here.

July
I am now PADI certified in open water diving. Read here about my experience in Ko Tao, Thailand. Quite excited and hoping to eventually take my camera underwater. Although that requires a bit more training.

May
I am now a Certified Yoga Teacher via Himalaya Yoga Valley School. A month long training program in Dharamsala India, home of the Dalai Lama and the most Tibetan you'll see of India, I suspect.

 

†  2010
January HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

Am really getting into blogging now. Back from Thailand, recently moved from New York to Hawaii and awaiting my move to South Korea this February. Everything is following course... Currently, my art making is going into travel photography, video and writing.

Social networks are the craze and i've got a pocketfull... more than I can keep up with. Obviously I can't spread myself thin in all of them or i'll be chained to this computer even more. The objective is to live life! Experience it! Open it up and be curious about it, not bury my head in the computer all day. So one of my resolutions this year will be to take a break from my computer every once in a while and go outdoors. While the travel blogging does take an adequate amount of time for me- video, photos, writing, twitter, gathering circulation, I promise myself to go easy. Produce with quality in mind.

2009 †  
.
06.11.09   
How to photograph yourself if you're holding the camera?


It is a superficial assumption to say that an artist feels most comfortable "hiding behind one's work". In actuality, it is every artist's desire to be "in front of his/her own work" and this desire "to be seen" is inevitably the underlying passion and drive to create. We seek to be visible. Each creation is self-reflection- a self-consciously narcissistic and exhibitionistic re-birthing of oneself through paint, concept, photograph, dance, etc... According to Sarte - The need to be seen and be recognized is human for through the act of being seen by another is to "exist"(). Who wouldn't want that?

Personally, I am always trying to find that right balance between the veil and the stage... Ask any artist and they'll tell you their life is conflicted with living dualities- of having to live both inside and outside of the margins of society and their own personality. Muse vs Artist, Day job vs. Night job, Introvert vs Extrovert, Rebel vs. Conformist, etc...  Duality is the necessity of creation- the two extremes feed/co-exist within each other like two quarrelling and passionate lovers which will never leave each others' side. And one eventually comes to a frustrating crux of having to deliberate between choices, as if he/she can feed only one child while watching the other starve.


05.24.09
On Darkness & Night-
I love jogging at night. Maybe its partially because I am part night owl, part vampire... and part artist... It's an entirely different world at night- hauntingly seductive, lights are aglow due to the aid of friendly shadows, a lit window reveals a neighbor watching tv from his laz-boy recliner and a strangely familiar, eerie and inviting scent of "family" and home cooking fills the air. I jog through streets, past houses and trees shape-shifting, undergoing a sort shamanistic transformation with the darkness. I realize I am witnessing its bewitching hour.

There is something within that creative space, that dimension between darkness and time, that is pregnant with possibility, imagination and calling. Shadows come out at night naked with erotic undertones, shading my sensibilities and eclipsing the harsh realities of the day. My imagination hears the secret whispers between blankets and sheets of neighbors, while the sound of rustling escapes leaves brushed by the wind and silence hushes throughout the landscape of houses whose room lights or darkness tell stories. The night reveals secrets by providing only the necessary information.

04.03.09
Memory: Body Maps & Words-
For the performer/actor, both can have strong ties. As acting coach Ivanna Chubick, will say, we speak in images, not words. When we read words on a script or in a book, we see images. When we listen to someone speaking, we hear in images. We personalize what we hear. We recall from our subconscious library these word-images and their personal meaning. Some images are indeed, more powerfully charged than others and will evoke memories and sensorial experiences in different sources of the body, constructing different interpretations, physical sensations and responses.

The body is another tool of memory containment- encapsulating emotion, energy as well as, the above mentioned, physical sensation.

04.01.09
I am heading back in the studio to research a new photo project about Selective Memory. I stumbled upon the idea during one of the shootfest outings I had with my photo group. It makes me think about some of my past work in box constructions, miniatures & self-narratives or a book I once read The Poetry of Space by Gaston Bachelard. Time and Geograpy are great capsules suffused in memory. One finite moment- of scent, sound, sight, physical sensation- that can trigger a memory of elation, loss, excitement, childhood innocence, etc... It can be the dullest and most common place thing that becomes a time capsule of either reward or pain. ...It's when one tiny point of clarity is momentarily evident as everything is slipping away.


03.31.09
My crazy soulmate sister in Berlin, Monika Lilleike, has finally gotten her website up and live! It's been an era and you don't know how crazy happy I am for her. Being an experimental/performance artist who also teaches workshops on her craft, its so necessary for her to shape her own PR and marketing and make her work accessible to others. Yet it's all too common for artists to find difficulty with the business aspect of marketing themselves and this is a problem for most. There's no business or professional development class in art school as if its a taboo to sell yourself and communicating yourself to others in non-hugabaju-ju talk isn't easy, when being martian is what makes your own work brilliant. Anyways, congrats girl. You can go back to hugabaju-ju now.


February
Been reworking the GRRRL TRAVELER blogsites in an effort to streamline our efforts to one server. GRRRL TRAVELER will now have a photo and video page as well as, cover traveler tips, news, inspirations and my travels abroad. It will also document some of my own work behind the smoke and mirrors of reality TV... because lets face it, some of the worlds I have access to can be foreign, strange. Reality Jack Keroac, watchout! You can currently find our blog at http//travelerdiaries.wordpress.com

December
GRRRLTRAVELER's travel blogs have finally gone live and can be found on Blogger.com & Travelpod.com. The travel blogs feature experiences and insights about places & cultures as visited from the frontline of my work on reality shows and backpacking adventures. It also offers traveler tips and hotel reviews that can also be found on TripAdvisor.com.

November
Our travel photography has been selected to be published onTravelpod.com. They will be featured on their site for select articles. Updates as to which months will feature our photos,... coming soon.

Christine has just wrapped a principal spot on a Price Chopper commercial and was recently chosen for a featured role for upcoming Leviton industrial & kiosk showcase videos.

October
Back too soon from our India travels & Nepal trekking, we have some new portraits to share! So we're adding an additional link, "Faces" to the photography section. Coming Soon!

Christine recently garnered a principle spot on an Osteo BiFlex commercial this summer. The commercials are currently posted on the Osteo Biflex website and are running nationally.

May
Christine recently recorded her story for the "Mixed Voices of America" project under the Mixed Roots Initiative. Her story will be placed in the Library of Congress and will be one of the voices which raises awareness of the Hapa/Multi-ethnic Community!

Our photography is currently published in the Schmap!! Guide of California.

April
Production on our photo series on rural environments, Dark Dwellings is currently on hold until we can gain funding and support to continue.

†   2007 †  
It has been announced- out of over 100 MFA scholarship applicants in categories such as design, computer arts, film & video, photography, illustration, fine arts, creative writing, 5 students have been selected to receive the 2007 MFA SVA Alumni Scholarship Awards . Congrats to the students winners!

Christine is honored to have been chosen to be one of the 6 panelist judges for the 2007 MFA SVA Alumni Scholarships Award.


† 2006  †  
Las Vegas / Los Angeles *
Travel Dates: Apr 8-11, 11-19

BK Catskills Retreat (May 31-Apr 2) *

Haines Falls, New York

† 2005  †   A TURN OF THE SCREW
Movement Research Festival 2005: Open Source
FLOW
 @ Danspace Project, 131 East 10th Street, NY 
Sat, Dec 3 at 8:30P
Moderated by koosil-ja hwang
Choreography: The Dancers
Dance Performance
Admission: $12


Festival van de Sociale Film 2005
DANSCAMDANSE 2 at Film Festival of Antwerp

26 Nov - 9 Dec  Program Info
Het Filmhuis, Klappei #2
Curated by Lazara Rosell Albear
Screening: December 4th at 20:15 pm
Admission: 3,5 Euro

DAMSCAMDANSE International Dance Film Festival
Nov 24-26    Program Info
Film-Plateau, Paddenhoek 3 - 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Screening: Nov 26 @ 8P
Admission: 4 Euro

whiteNoise performance retreat
(Nov 22-28
)*
Saarbrucken, Germany & Ghent, Belgium


Girl with a Walkman
:
Butoh Performance Workshop w/ Christine Kaaloa
Dates: Oct 18-20, 2005
Locations:
Lerner Hall, 115th & Broadway @ Columbia University , NY
Dodge Hall @ Columbia University , NY


Great Small Works

Answer on the Day You Call
PS122, 150 East 1st Ave
Performance: Nov 1 at 9P

Dumbo Arts Festival (various locations), Brooklyn, NY
Performances: Oct 15, 2005 @ 3P, 4P, 5P

Akira Kasai Workshop
Oct 24-26, 2005 @ the Puffin Room, 5-9P

Ko Murobushi Workshop
Oct 8, 2005 @ Japan Society

VideoMixTape Festival.
Screenings:
• TBD. Innsbruck, Austria
• TBD. Los Angeles, CA

V1b3 Summer 05: Video In the Built Environment Project.
Aug 2-6
Screenings:
Chicago-US, Liverpool-UK, Manchester-UK
•  Intersection of Michigan Avenue & Grant Park
•  Big Screen in Exchange Square, Manchester, UK
•  Big Screen in Clayton Square, Liverpool, UK

Boston *
Travel dates: July 30- Aug 1

Las Vegas: American Elvis *
Travel dates: Jun 30-July 5

Chicago*
Travel dates: Feb 22-25


Arlene's Grocery- 5th Annual Picture Show
MF Gallery  157 Rivington Street, NYC
Screening: Saturday, May 7, 8:00pm


2004   20TH CENTURY BULLET-PROOF BRIEFS †

New York International Independent Film & Video Festival

Village East Cinemas, 181 2nd Ave at 12th St, NYC
Screening: November 8, 2004 2p

Resurrection
Thirty-Nine Hotel Gallery, 39 N.Hotel St, Honolulu HI
Opening Nite: October 31, 2004

38th BAC International Film & Video Festival

Brooklyn Museum, Cantor Auditorium, NY
Screening: Sat, May 8, 2004 8p

† 2003   WONDERWOMAN †

Alive & Gone- MFA Video
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Brooklyn, NY
Screening: Sept. 28-29, 2003 8p

Vortice Argentina Festival: 6th Encuentro Internacional de Poesia
Visual, Sonora Y Experimental

Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Exhibition Dates: Jueves 25 of sept.-oct 19, 2003

Collisions: First Avenue -the Electro-Acoustic trio
Experimental Musical Accompaniment by First Avenue
University of the Streets - 130 East 7th St at Avenue A in the East Village.
Screening: Sunday, June 29 at 9 PM

MFA Thesis Exhibition 2003
Visual Arts Gallery, 137 Wooster St, New York, NY
Exhibition Dates: May 31-June 14, 2003
Reception: Tues, June 3, 5-7 pm

DIS-LODGED Exhibition
SVA Gallery, West 21st St, New York, NY
Exhibition Dates: May 24-June 10, 2003
Reception: Wed, May 28, 5-7pm

Home Away from Home 2003
Curated by Jarryd Lowder
Remote Lounge, 327 Bowery St., New York,NY
Screening: May 13 6pm

Digital Salon Vectors: Digital Art of Our Time
In Presentation of The NY Digital Salon 2003
World Financial Center Winter Garden
, 220 Vesey St, New York, NY
Presentation: Wed, May 7, 12-2pm

New Leonardos: Multi-Channel Sound Performance
Engine 27 Sound Installation Space, 73 Franklin St, New York, NY
MFA SVA group Residency
Reception: April 26 12-9pm

† 2002  †

Home Away From HOME VIDEOS 2002.

Curated by Jarryd Lowder
Remote Lounge, 327 Bowery St., New York,NY

 

n e w s




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