Andi Crist doesn’t just make objects—she stages moments of contradiction, care, and critique. Working at the intersection of sculpture, labor, and absurdity, the Chicago-based artist transforms everyday materials into strange, captivating interventions. Wooden caution tape, ceramic extension cords, custom wet-floor signs—they’re all part of Crist’s visual language, reimagining the functional as performative and the disposable as precious. With a background in carpentry, her practice is rooted in the mechanics of making and the politics of display. Witty and rigorous—it’s the kind of work that draws you in with craft and compels you to reconsider value, purpose, and the systems we move through every day. In Precautionary Measures, Crist does exactly that. And as with much of her work, it makes you wonder what is functional, what is staged, and how context reframes it all.

NOTE FROM THE ARTIST

Precautionary Measures is a site-specific installation that reimagines the aesthetics of caution and containment through the lens of craft, labor, and institutional display. Housed within a series of glass vitrines at the Chicago Athletic Association, the piece features wooden, three-dimensional “caution tape” arranged in deliberate, striking, and coiling configurations. These handcrafted replicas stand in for objects typically associated with speed, disposability, and urgency. Because of their haphazard construction, they may shift and deteriorate throughout the exhibition period. At the base of the installation, ceramic extension cords rest coiled and inert, offering another subtle contradiction between appearance and utility.

By replacing mass-produced safety materials with fragile, labor-intensive objects, the work reflects on the performance of precaution and the ambiguity of boundaries. What does it mean to signal danger with care? Or to install a warning where no threat exists? Works like these are best installed by the person who made them.

The installation builds on my ongoing interest in workplace signage, tool culture, and the aesthetics of risk. Referencing Bruce Nauman’s use of studio residue and architectural space as both material and metaphor, Precautionary Measures becomes a sculptural double-take. It invites viewers to question what counts as functional, what counts as finished, and how display alters meaning. The vitrine, in this context, acts as both a frame and a barrier, turning a provisional gesture into a permanent fixture.

ABOUT THE ARTIST AND CURATOR

Andi Crist’s sculptural practice is deeply influenced by her career as a professional art handler and fabricator. She works with a diverse range of media, including woodworking, ceramics, leather craft, and mold-making/casting, to explore the various roles and representations of the artist as a worker. By pairing humor and skepticism with traditional craft techniques, she critically examines the value systems within the arts economy and the underlying structures that sustain them, such as language, architecture, and social economics. She has exhibited at venues including Tiger Strikes Asteroid, the Chicago Artists Coalition, and Comfort Station. In 2025, she was named one of Newcity’s “Breakout Artists: Chicago’s Next Generation of Image Makers.” Her work can be found at andicrist.com.

Greek-born Vasia Rigou is writer, editor, and curator exploring visual art, culture, architecture, and design. She is the editor of Newcity, Chicago’s leading culture publication, and regularly contributes to Chicago Reader, Artnet News, and international magazines OnOffice and ICON. In her curatorial practice, she explores themes of identity, intimacy, and belonging with exhibitions at the Chicago Artists Coalition—where she was awarded the HATCH curatorial residency—the Swedish American Museum, the Design Museum of Chicago, the Chicago Athletic Association, and other venues. Her traveling exhibition Lay Of(f) the Land is on view at the Museum of Danish America before heading to Finland and Sweden. Her work can be found at rigouvasia.com.

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