![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/DriveBySideEye_GenevieveGaignard_ShulamitNazarian.jpg\")
Drive-By, Side-Eye, 2016 \u00a9 Genevieve Gaignard, courtesy of the artist and Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles<\/p>\n Drive-By, Side-Eye, 2016 \u00a9 Genevieve Gaignard, courtesy of the artist and Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles<\/p>\n
American artist Genevieve Gaignard is a homebody. Not in the sense that she’s confined to the couch every Friday night, but rather that she\u2019s infatuated with domestic spaces. \u201cI\u2019ve always had this fascination with what people surround themselves with in their homes,\u201d she tells SLEEK. It\u2019s a theme that\u2019s been a constant in her work since she threw in the towel at cookery school and headed down a fine art path. From the panoramic interiors she lensed for her Yale application, to the carefully curated domestic installations that made up her solo show,\u00a0Smell the Roses<\/em>, at the\u00a0<\/span>Californian African American Museum earlier this year, to the household-centric creations currently on display at the Stephen Friedman Gallery in London \u2014 home is where Gaignard\u2019s heart is. Born in Massachusetts to a black father and a white mother, Gaignard is white passing, despite identifying as black, and her visually ambiguous identity is something that\u2019s troubled her since childhood. \u201cWhen I say I\u2019m passing, I mean we navigate through the world how others see us, and I\u2019m usually seen as white,\u201d Gaignard explains. It\u2019s complicated to reconcile with an appearance that conflicts with your identity, but art has been Gaignard\u2019s outlet through which to come to terms with, explore and push the limitations of identity and its perception. \u201cOver time I\u2019ve been able to process and tap into all the things I thought as a young girl growing up in this body, and this mind,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s about owning the skin I\u2019m in, and thinking about how I can speak about blackness through seemingly white characters.\u201d<\/span> Often exhibiting her photographs within the context of domestic space \u2014 dollhouse-esque rooms plastered with garish patterned wallpaper and furnished with shaggy pile rugs and kitschy trinkets \u2014 Gaignard forges a sense of comfort and temptation in which to confront more pertinent questions within her compositions. \u201cI\u2019m never pulling too far from that feeling of home,\u201d she explains, \u201cand this idea of bringing the viewer in because it feels familiar, it feels comfortable \u2014 it\u2019s a little bit of trickery, enticing the viewer with this seemingly lighthearted thing and then making them consider how they think about race, and how they make judgements.\u201d <\/span> Talisman in the Age of Difference<\/a>\u00a0is currently on display at Stephen Friedman Gallery<\/a>, London, and runs until 21 July.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Genevieve Gaignard uses American stereotypes and comfortable settings to confront uncomfortable issues surrounding race and identity.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[10690,154,6598,10691,10692],"class_list":["post-66004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-genevieve-gaignard","tag-photography","tag-self-portraits","tag-stephen-friedman-gallery","tag-yinka-shonibare"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\n
\nThough she\u2019s what you\u2019d call a multidisciplinary artist, it\u2019s Gaignard\u2019s photography that\u2019s earned her such widespread attention. Known for turning the lens on herself, Gaignard\u2019s Cindy Sherman-esque self-portraits occupy a complex realm where class, race and gender intersect, seeing the artist assume caricatured roles that toy with her own bi-racial identity and the way that blackness and whiteness is perceived. And the home, more often than not, provides the comfortable backdrop for Gaignard’s more uncomfortable subject matter.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Neighborhood-Watch_Genevieve-Gaignard_Shulamit-Nazarian-copy-1.jpeg\")
Neighborhood Watch, 2017 \u00a9 Genevieve Gaignard, courtesy of the artist and Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles<\/p>\n
\nhttps:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Bg3rYKBlcGe\/?tagged=genevievegaignard
\nIn one image, entitled <\/span>Star-Crossed Color Lines,<\/span><\/i> Gaignard poses with a presumed lover, her fair skin positioned in stark contrast to his dark complexion. She looks over her shoulder to make direct eye contact with the viewer, while he looks away, as if to confront premature judgement. In her solo compositions Gaignard shape-shifts into different female characters \u2014 from glammed-up LA-style housewives to dreadlocked \u201choodrats\u201d to the busybody neighbour next door. \u201cI spend a lot of time people-watching so I\u2019m always cataloguing looks and ideas of who I might create next,\u201d she explains. And with each character she takes on, Gaignard taps into a new mindset, one that sees her playfully exploring the misconceptions of femininity and racial identity and embodying different personas with campness and conviction.<\/span>
\nBut despite her confident exterior, Gaignard finds the initial process of getting into character more traumatic than empowering. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of the opposite of my favourite thing to do,\u201d she admits. \u201cIt actually feels quite stressful and a little nerve wracking.\u201d Masquerading as another character is a disconcerting prospect. \u201cI feel like I already navigate through a world where people don\u2019t quite see me for who I am,\u201d she explains, \u201cand so I\u2019m then putting another layer of that on, and then it just becomes even more confusing.\u201d But the challenge is all part of it. \u201cMy goal is to reach a moment where I feel confident, or am embodying the person in front of the camera.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/TheColorPurple_GenevieveGaignard_ShulamitNazarian.jpg\")
The Color Purple, 2016 \u00a9 Genevieve Gaignard, courtesy of the artist and Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles<\/p>\n
\nHarking back to this enduring thematic concept, Gaignard\u2019s most recent work departs from the photographic in favour of installation. The two new pieces conceived for the Yinka Shonibare-curated <\/span>Talisman in the Age of Difference <\/span><\/i>at London\u2019s Stephen Friedman Gallery address questions of identity and perception through the recontextualisation of mammy figurines \u2014 a woefully outdated archetype of feminine blackness in America \u2014 with classic Victorian dolls. \u201cThe mammy figurines are such a disrespectful image of how blackness was portrayed in America,\u201d Gaignard explains, \u201cso I collect these two items and remove the heads from both. The mammy head is then put on the body of the doll in the dress, which is then seamlessly put together and repainted, and now is having this new moment where she can just be this whimsical, free creature and not this stereotype of blackness.\u201d The new dolls are then exhibited among household items: one sits on a grandfather clock shelving unit, filled with books that speak about blackness in America, the other assumes the role of a bird \u2014 beautiful, but caged, and at the mercy of its owner. The exhibition’s\u00a0<\/span>unifying question is “can unconventional beauty be a form of resistance?” For Gaignard, it\u2019s a resounding yes. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Genevieve.jpg\")
(L) Genevieve Gaignard
Rise and Shine (Her Moment in Time), 2018
Grandfather clock, custom hand painted porcelain figurine, found objects, vintage books, doilies
185.4 x 51.2 x 25cm
(73 x 20 1\/8 x 9 7\/8in), (R) She Was Afraid of Heights, But She Was Much More Afraid of Never Flying, 2018
Birdcage with stand, custom hand painted porcelain figurine, skeleton key, feather, doily
163 x 45 x 26cm
(64 1\/8 x 17 3\/4 x 10 1\/4in)
Courtesy of Shulamit Nazarian and the Artist
Photos: Stephen White<\/p>\n