Geraldine Festenstein
London, UK
Geraldine’s work is all about connections. In this endeavour she aims to create circumstances whereby connections can be made between the present and the past. These connections become clearer in the present piece as it becomes more imbued with meaning with work from the past. She gathers together previously worked experiments, samples, bits and pieces at various stages of construction and deconstruction, discarding parts of what lies before her and assembling and reassembling those that remain in such a way that the composition of those that remain may have a deeper resonance with the past.
Geraldine liberates residual marks, fragments, torn edges, curled corners and scraps from their original pieces and creates new environments for them. She aims to create new pieces by mining previous sampling, adding old fragments, removing others, piling stitches onto previously worked stitches, working with crumpled edges, emphasising knots of discarded threads, giving prominence to the reverse side, while always hoping to allow a work of deeper meaning to emerge. She finds herself restlessly sorting, resorting and reworking the pieces that lie before her, in the hope that the process may help both she and the viewer to recognise that it is important for Geraldine to repeatedly to make connections with the past.
Photographs: John and Geraldine Festenstein