Margarita Fainshtein

My name is Margarita and I struggle to say where I am from. I am from many places. I have always wanted to belong, to have a place to call home. I was born in Ukraine, repatriated to Israel and then immigrated to Canada. I am Nova Scotian, however, I have other cultural identities, which interact with each other and make me who I am. I am very interested in the notion of Time, History, Memory, Erasure and Culture. I am attentive to what happens at the intersection of these concepts when applied to cultures and generations crossing. How do immigration and other cultural notions interact with political, social, and cultural infrastructures?

How are political movements connected to an individual’s history, forming the global one? Speaking up and giving a voice to a culture, documents and cultural roots, I am interested in an individual’s immigration/migration, transferring it into global motion, which an audience (public) could relate to, becoming part of the project and being visually, emotionally and conceptually involved in it. I collect multi-generational family identification documents from around the world, and reproduce them by sorting them out into groups, then layer them using printmaking techniques. I think about language as an object, a representational tool of culture and memory. I wonder if the memories, layered one upon another, become buried in the past or are remains left from the former layer, life, identity, and time. Through the printmaking process I create relief prints that combine to build a new, unified identity. Enlarging the prints, I make them monumental, telling not just my personal story, but reaching out to those who have also lost their identities during the process of changing countries and looking for a safe place. I recreate my personal memory and family history, share it with the audience and invite the audience to see their history in my installations, creating a community. I work with the lights, shadows and reflections to create interactive installations, where the audience becomes part of it by dropping their shadows, influencing and changing the space by their presence.I am fusing into the paper, fabric or plexiglass letters and documents from a couple of generations and embossing them into the surface. During this process, I am losing patterns of official papers and erasing details by obtaining anew, vibrant identity, mixing languages and cultures where my family has lived. Some elements of it are still visible, while the others are completely erased, forming a representation of cultures, identities and memories.I am interested in time and the way it intersects with the past that flows through the future.

How do you navigate the art world? Are you following any trends? 

I try to navigate the art world as an artist. And what I mean by this, is that I am exposing myself to as many art movements, thoughts, influences, and ideas as I can. I believe that we become (artistically and intellectually) who we are by absorbing and adjusting ideas, events, and visuals around us, and translating them into our own perspective. In parallel, I am in constant research of my own voice in my art practice. I am confident that in order to produce something new, there is a need to know what was created and invented before.

What themes do you pursue? 

I view my practice as a collaboration with past generations and with my own memories. Through my work I wonder if memories, when layered one upon another, become buried in the past or are there remains left from a former life, identity, or time. I try to discover if anybody can recuperate their own past and I question to what extent identity is truly unique or inherent. I believe culture defines history and is strongly connected to it. There is a phenomenon, when cultures and histories are crossed, forming multiculturalism and multilingualism. This intersection generates an interesting singularity, which creates a separate layer of culture, which alien to others and develops an alternative set of questions about identity, language, history, time and culture in a whole. If to think about history as a cultural feature, which could be adjusted and edited depending on geographical location, socio-economic issues and time aspects, my art practice supports this claim by overlapping personal history (or memories) and public ones. By involving audience in my art works, telling them the history, which was experienced by one, I am projecting it on others, converting the viewers into active participants. Personal memory (experience) becomes public and forms a mutual history with the hope that past alters the future and with the desire to change it.

What is the best piece of art related advice you have been given? 

I was advised to stop being apologetic. To base my work on other artworks; however, do not compare myself to others. Accept who you are and celebrate it!

Professionally, what is your goal?

The world is becoming more diverse; cultural borders are converting into bridges and acceptance of a cross-cultural reality influences societal identity through the generations. I think about my practice as a platform, which tries to understand multiculturalism through collective and personal memories as objects, which are part of the identity and culture one is exposed to. I began to materialize my ideas of cultural identity and belonging. I am working in a printmaking technique, although experimenting with it and expend the traditional meaning of it. I build 3D installations, printing on acetate and working with lights, shadows and reflections. Also, right now I am working to commemorate the dialog with my almost 97-year-old Grandfather, who recently passed away, where we share one of the most private and valuable things that any person has; memories. When one loses everything, even the last hope, the memories are still there. Recently, he shared with me his thoughts about history, culture and re-enactment of his times. By reproducing my Grandpa memories, I meet his friends and restore his emotions and atmosphere of these times. Professionally, my goal is to continue these artistic conversations, encourage broader dialogs with public, keep exploring, discovering, inventing, and be amazed by everything around us.