Studio G
Estelle Rosenfeld
My artistic practice is puppetry-based, exploring the crossroads of performing art & visual art. Since June 2008, I have been working on a mixed media project called Puppets & Dolls, which has been supported by Arts Council England. It plays with the resonances of these words, & takes its origin in a photograph of my relatives posing at Berck-Plage, in France, in 1930. Three of the six figures in the photo were deported & died in Auschwitz. What struck me about this picture was the golden age feeling attached to this snapshot, of people caught between two migrations, a voluntary one to the west, & another, involuntary journey, back to the east. I wanted to re-enact the snapshot & started to make puppets embodying my deported relatives.
I began with a puppet-size procession on Whitstable beach (Ida on the Beach, Whitstable Biennale, Satellite). This was followed by a one-spectator show in a Folkestone beach hut (Ida & Isaac’s Shelter, Folkestone Fringe), a series of hybrid animation movies & peep shows (Jeu de Massacre and A Few Things I Know), a series of photographs (Ida’s Suitcase, Ida & Isaac, musette and Family Snapshots), & a street art performance (Take the Pose) commissioned by Canterbury City Council for the district’s festivals in the summer 2009. All this work culminated in a mixed media interactive exhibition in October 2009 at Georges House Gallery, Folkestone.
Since then, Take the Pose toured nationally in 2010 as part of the Applause/PANeK rural touring project funded by Kent County Council (thirty dates in twenty-six venues over three months), & will tour again in 2011. Works from the Puppets & Dolls exhibition have been exhibited at the re-opening of the Jewish Museum in London & Migrations festival in Paris. Through exhibitions, performances & the website, Puppets & Dolls has reached over 7,000 people.
I am now moving on to a new project called Capture, exploring early motion devices. It should be researched & developed in a residency at Central School of Speech & Drama in 2010/11.
I also work regularly as a puppet & prop maker, if you are interested in seeing my latest commissions, please visit my website for more information.
