RACHEL FEINSTEIN
Romeo and Juliet, 2019
For OFF THE WALL, Feinstein expanded on her interest of set design, creating a separate world from another time that invites viewers to peek inside. This vignette, inspired from a short film Feinstein made for the Met Opera's production of Romeo and Juliet, depicts the two title characters exchanging glances from across an opulent party from the famed ballroom scene. Architectural elements, along with the guests, are meticulously cut out and rendered in varying layers to create a sense depth that further pulls the viewer into her retold version of this classic tragedy by Shakespeare.
In richly detailed sculptures, performances and installations, Rachel Feinstein investigates and challenges the concept of luxury as expressed in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Europe in the context of contemporary parallels. By synthesizing visual and societal opposites such as the marvelous and the banal, she explores issues of taste and desire. Her exhibition highlights include MoMa PS1, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah. Rachel Feinstein is represented by Gagosian Gallery.