George Ferrandi’s latest work “Star!Star!Star!Circle!” is on view now at Wayfarers in Brooklyn.
Artist George Ferrandi focuses on sculpture, performance, and theater in works like “ok don’t look at the stranger…” (exploring wait staff body language) and “it felt like i knew you…” (looking at how strangers interact on the subway). Based in Brooklyn, Ferrandi uses a variety of mediums to look at the specifics of human interaction in various situations. Her latest project, “Star!Star!Star!Circle!” includes sound, sculpture, drawings, and fabric art, made possible by support from the Japan-US Friendship Commission and the International House of Japan.
Ferrandi’s work exists at the intersection of performance art, sculpture, and social documentation. “Star!Star!Star!Circle,” for instance, came about when she learned that what we perceive as the North Star is different than what the Egyptians used as a guide to build the pyramids—and from what future generations will call the North Star—because of the earth’s axial precession. In response, Ferrandi has put together a festival celebrating what the North Star will become. Part of this endeavor will involve a sponsored trip to Japan to research star festivals in Aomori City. Sponsor JUFC, led by Thierry Porté, works to help artists like Ferrandi travel to Japan and build relationships between that country and the US.
Ferrandi’s art generally leaves no physical trace except images, but those images have received almost 800,000 mentions on Tumblr and led to a TED Talk for the artist, among other accolades. She focuses on small gestures and interactions between strangers, whether on the subway or at a café, and how daily rituals affect the people and objects involved. She says of her project “it felt like I knew you…” that it was “born out of loneliness. I remember standing on a packed train with my head an inch from someone’s shoulder, exhausted from the day and wanting so badly the comfort of human connection, but recognizing how transgressive that tiny gesture of intimacy—moving my head one inch—would be.”
Star!Star!Star!Circle! opened at Wayfarers in Brooklyn on May 29 and will run through June 21. There will also be special performances this summer at the International House of Japan in Tokyo and in the fall at The Front in New Orleans. For more information about George Ferrandi’s past and current projects, check out her website.
Image: via Instagram.