This past week, artist George Ferrandi came to speak to us about her work. Her home is in Brooklyn NY, but she is currently a visiting professor at VCU and is staying in Richmond, VA. Ferrandi majored in sculpture when she attended VCU years ago. Today, her focus has shifted from sculpture to performance art--an art form that remains to be loosely defined but is gaining popularity with both artists and viewers in the contemporary art world.
Interestingly, when asked about her feelings toward performance art, Ferrandi claims, "I hate it, but it's also what I'm drawn to do." I can sympathize with her here. I've found that some of the most tedious art methods and frustrating media are often those that I am most compelled to attempt or try my hand at. Ultimately, after going through painstaking process, what usually comes of the time and effort put into the art I am more proud of than the art that resides within my comfort zone. It seems that when you have an idea that you are passionate about, no matter how intimidating the process, you will find a way to make it work and bring a dream to fruition.
Ferrandi talked about a few of her past projects. I loved how different each project was from other and also how they all started with fairly abstract ideas. In this, each piece seemed to embody some beautiful message about the imperfections of humanity or the eccentricities of human connection. Before pulling up the photos of the project, Ferrandi recounted to us a story about how she found herself trapped one day in an extremely boring meeting arguing over something as senseless and stupid as the placing of a semi colon. She began to imagine a tightrope walker strutting over the heads of the foolish business men and dropping feathers on their faces. It was then that she knew that she had to make a traveling circus. And that's exactly what she did. It was called the "Cloud Seeding Circus"--an elaborate menagerie of colorful characters performing upon a rolling stage. Ferrandi explained that like most of her other work, the Circus was a "celebration of awkwardness." One of the driving forces behind her art is the Japanese concept of "wabi sabi"--embracing mistakes has become one of her signatures as a artist. She chooses to build upon them and highlight them instead of trying to disguise them like so many other artist feel the need to do. Keeping along the same lines of seeing beauty in mistakes, Ferrandi talked about how she feels the most interesting parts of her work "Prosthetics of Joy" are the inventive ways she tried to make up for what was lost in translation when attempting to recreate the photo of her nephew's bar mitzfah with adults. The last project she talked about was entitled "It felt like I knew you". For this performance work, Ferrandi would convince herself that the stranger she was sitting next to on the subway was actually a good friend. Then she would lie her head upon their shoulder and seeing how they reacted. She had a friend sitting across from her surreptitiously filming the each experimental encounter. Ferrandi received a wide variety of reactions--some people would get up and leave and others would simply smile. In recognizing loneliness as something that we humans share in common but also as that which can keep us apart, she wanted to try sculpting the environment from the social norms and the fear to create a place of familiarity and comfort.
In the end, it was truly inspiring to listen George Ferrandi talk about her career and the unusual yet provocative art that she pursues. I am now curious to learn more about the power of performance art.
Check out George Ferrandi's art at:
http://georgeferrandi.com/
Interestingly, when asked about her feelings toward performance art, Ferrandi claims, "I hate it, but it's also what I'm drawn to do." I can sympathize with her here. I've found that some of the most tedious art methods and frustrating media are often those that I am most compelled to attempt or try my hand at. Ultimately, after going through painstaking process, what usually comes of the time and effort put into the art I am more proud of than the art that resides within my comfort zone. It seems that when you have an idea that you are passionate about, no matter how intimidating the process, you will find a way to make it work and bring a dream to fruition.
Ferrandi talked about a few of her past projects. I loved how different each project was from other and also how they all started with fairly abstract ideas. In this, each piece seemed to embody some beautiful message about the imperfections of humanity or the eccentricities of human connection. Before pulling up the photos of the project, Ferrandi recounted to us a story about how she found herself trapped one day in an extremely boring meeting arguing over something as senseless and stupid as the placing of a semi colon. She began to imagine a tightrope walker strutting over the heads of the foolish business men and dropping feathers on their faces. It was then that she knew that she had to make a traveling circus. And that's exactly what she did. It was called the "Cloud Seeding Circus"--an elaborate menagerie of colorful characters performing upon a rolling stage. Ferrandi explained that like most of her other work, the Circus was a "celebration of awkwardness." One of the driving forces behind her art is the Japanese concept of "wabi sabi"--embracing mistakes has become one of her signatures as a artist. She chooses to build upon them and highlight them instead of trying to disguise them like so many other artist feel the need to do. Keeping along the same lines of seeing beauty in mistakes, Ferrandi talked about how she feels the most interesting parts of her work "Prosthetics of Joy" are the inventive ways she tried to make up for what was lost in translation when attempting to recreate the photo of her nephew's bar mitzfah with adults. The last project she talked about was entitled "It felt like I knew you". For this performance work, Ferrandi would convince herself that the stranger she was sitting next to on the subway was actually a good friend. Then she would lie her head upon their shoulder and seeing how they reacted. She had a friend sitting across from her surreptitiously filming the each experimental encounter. Ferrandi received a wide variety of reactions--some people would get up and leave and others would simply smile. In recognizing loneliness as something that we humans share in common but also as that which can keep us apart, she wanted to try sculpting the environment from the social norms and the fear to create a place of familiarity and comfort.
In the end, it was truly inspiring to listen George Ferrandi talk about her career and the unusual yet provocative art that she pursues. I am now curious to learn more about the power of performance art.
Check out George Ferrandi's art at:
http://georgeferrandi.com/
