comedy special
“How to Bake a Cake in the Digital Age is a half-hour comedy special set in a cooking show that may or may not ever start, starring Christina Catherine Martinez, who may or may not be playing a character that may or may not be having a real emotional breakdown. Filmed in November 2020 at Human Resources Gallery in Los Angeles, Christina performs her jokes for an audience of no one but the small crew who is filming her, some of whom may or may not be figments of sound design. HTBCDA grinds the lens of Martinez's live stand up material for the screen, peering into the constructed nature of the filmed comedy special, and the constructed nature of the performer herself. “
Art & Commissions
Aesthetical Relations
Aesthetical Relations is an itinerant and irregular live talk show experience, bringing together comedians, artists, video screenings, a rotating house band, and other multimedia delights. I do weird bits in between interviewing performers, the fourth wall is broken, reassembled, mixed into a smoothie, and dribbled down our chins. We all have an amazing time. Aesthetical Relations is written, produced, and hosted by me.
Aesthetical Relations XI was staged at REDCAT Down Center for the Performing Arts and reviewed by Dakota Higgins for X-Tra Journal.
“As a writer, actor, art critic, and comedian, Martinez proves poised to keenly conflate the sunken depths of comedy with the spacey depths of theory[…]This is where critical gesture meets comical jest.”
Christina Catherine Martinez Presents: Stephanie Presents: Tala Madani
This piece was commissioned by MOCA in response to Iranian painter Tala Madani’s incredible and hilarious mid-career retrospective. Madani is pretty much the only artist I know of who can make an actually funny painting. The walkthrough became a performance in itself, led by a character I’ve been developing for several years. The event was free and open to the public, many of whom were not aware that it was a performance.
In her signature mode of performance as criticism, Christina Catherine Martinez will present a walkthrough of Tala Madani: Biscuits as Martinez's fictional alter-ego, an art publicist named Stephanie (no last name), whose PR agency operates under the ominous aegis of parent company Hexx Luxury Group FTW, LLC. Stephanie looks forward to taking time out of her busy LA art week to talk about paintings and stuff with you.
Here is more footage of me as Stephanie performing at Jibz Cameron’s Weirdo Night at Zebulon in Los Angeles
LACMA: NOT I
WET CRITIC
Wet Critic (2021-?) is a durational performance initially activated for the exhibition “Your Presence is Encouraged” curated by Isabel Yellin. The goal was to remain physically present and also physically wet throughout the duration of the show. I got sick, people cried, and the work was ultimately executed according to its parameters. AQNB hosted this video-documentation-cum-artist-statement-cum-sketch.