George Ferrandi is an American artist primarily known for her performance, installation and participatory projects that address issues of vulnerability, impermanence, fallibility and spectacle, often through experimental approaches to narrative. In 2011, Ferrandi founded the studio program and art galleryWayfarers Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York.
Art
The Prosthetics of Joy (2014)
First developed at the Laupahoehoe Cultural Residency Program, "The Prosthetics of Joy" was performed at University of Alabama Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Art and archived on Blackbirdonline journal of literature and the arts. The artist recreated a photograph with a live performance. The photo is of 30 children at a bar mitzvah dressed as adults. In the performance, adults are supported by sculptures in exact mid-jump locations, playing the parts of the children. The sculptural prosthetics fit the player's bodies, being custom made in the weeks leading up to the event.
It Felt Like I Knew You (2012)
Ferrandi would ride the New York City Subway in the evening. When someone sat next to her, she embarked on a mental experiment of "resculpting" the space between herself and her fellow passenger, attempting to change what she considered stiff and guarded space into soft yielding space, then resting her head on the passenger's shoulder.
Wherever There Is Water (2010)
Developed in conjunction with Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, wherever There Is Water was an experimental narrative told in the form of a procession. Ferrandi wrote a fictional story about Huberta, an elderly Coney Island woman trying to walk back to her old life. During the event, several hundred people walked through South Philly carrying illuminated sculptures and paper lanterns created at workshops hosted at Fleisher, while a chorus sang songs Ferrandi had composed to narrate Huberta's travels.
An installation at Cinders Gallery in Brooklyn and Covivant Gallery in Tampa, described by Holland Cotter of the New York Times as "an odd, moving show, in which a single piece, a larger-than-life-size sculpture of a man, stands out." The figure is a portrait of George's father, who was recently deceased.
Cloud Seeding Circus of the Performative Object (2002-1999)
Cloud Seeding Circus was a touring performance project produced collaboratively by ten visual artists. A mobile installation, exhibition space and vehicle for performance, the compact caravan arrived in towns and art venues to give live performances out of their mobile stage. Cloud Seeding referenced the traditional circus but operated within the traditions of sculpture, video, installation, and performance art as a contemporary circus project. The project toured from 1999-2002. It was profiled in Freaks and Fire: The Underground Reinvention of Circus by J. Dee Hill.
