London based artist, Claire Pestaille, is best known for her intriguing collage works, re-appropriating vintage Hollywood imagery and film-stills into surreal contemporary versions of the golden era and its icons.
Taking ownership of images from the past through the act of collage, Pestaille’s work establishes relationships and connections between the existence of one image and it's marriage with another. Photographs duplicated, cut up, divided and re-assembled like a jigsaw puzzle allow her to intervene with the authority of the original in order to create fresh readings born from the disruption of existing signs.
The Diamond Cut (Starlet 1), as seen in WONDERWORKS, is part of an ongoing series that takes inspiration from cinema, film stills and studio portraiture in the golden age of Hollywood. The darkened theatrical space of cinema with the flickering lights of film produce illusionary representations of reality suspended in time, a place where the nostalgia of the past and the desire of the present collide. Cinema gave birth to voyeurism, the cult of celebrity, the desire of advertising and the power of the image. The Diamond Cut series is an exploration of the cinematic construction of the feminine, the spectator and screen relationship, and the subject of the gaze: ideas transmitted through the act of collage and interpreted through the image, which ultimately serves as preliminary sketch to future film making projects.
Pestaille has been producing works since completing her MA at the Royal College of Art (1998-2000), having completed her Ba(hons)1st at Chelsea College of Art and Design (1994-1997). She has exhibited within the UK and internationally and has her work included in private collections in London, New York, Switzerland and Germanym including: The Zabludowicz Collection, The Saatchi Collection, Kai van Hasselt, Project New Art, Netherlands, Gerrit Groen, Alex Kleinburger, Nick Crean, Royal College of Art, Laura Ashley Foundation, TI Group Art Collection and Soho House.
