Archive of work by graduates from the renowned MFA Programme at GSA

Giuseppe Mistretta

I’m drawn to what you can’t put your finger on but is all around you. That which you feel with your senses but when you try to put it into words it becomes two-dimensional. What makes a performance a worthwhile endeavor? Is it valid to take an everyday ritual and reenact it out of context? What happens when something live is recorded and played back over and over again? The well rehearsed movements of a climber scaling a steep rock face. A postman moving through his daily routine, remembering which bundle to pull out of his bag at what flight of stairs. The mime artist washing off her body paint in the public toilet. There is a relationship that we have with the world that makes us act in a certain way. We adapt and perform in a manner that we believe is appropriate and this contorts depending on our location, the company we are sharing, and how familiar we are to our surroundings. The road is eroded by the winter’s freeze. Cavernous potholes to be weaved around by oncoming vehicles. Children impersonating adults whilst being beautifully ignorant towards all the challenges that are ahead of them. The expressions on the faces of statues as they try to ignore each other’s gaze.