Natalia Panfile - Sun. January 14, 2007
Natalia Panfile was born in the Republic of Moldova, and came to the United States when she was 17. She attended the Community College of Baltimore County for 2 years and then transferred to MICA. After graduating from MICA with a BFA she was accepted into the IMDA (Imaging and Digital Arts) Graduate program at UMBC. Panfile is a performance artist and in her performances explores social, cultural and gender issues. She wants to see how all of these issues affect her as an immigrant and as a woman.
Project Name: Carpet
Project Description: Everyone has a different experience when dealing with grief and the death of a loved one. From Panfile’s own experience she noticed that when she was going through the grieving process, her way of dealing with it was to occupy herself with cleaning or washing, as if to erase the person that is no more. She is an immigrant to this country, so everything that she does or makes is influenced by her native culture as well as the adopted culture. When it comes to housework she mostly does everything the way it is done in Moldova (her native country). This piece is influenced by a task that her mother and she would perform almost every summer- washing the carpets outside on the sidewalk. She will use the sidewalk on Howard Street, behind the Load of Fun Gallery to wash a carpet. The purpose of this performance is to see how people react to a person doing tasks that are usually done inside the house. Panfile wants to see if people will try to engage her or avoid her.
