Vidya Gastaldon was born in 1974 in Besançon, France, and currently lives and works in Geneva. Working with visionary and revelatory symbolism, Gastaldon creates worlds into which her viewers can enter and be transformed. Using mostly her own handiwork to meticulously craft her pieces, she aims to communicate her intentions through her labor. Sewing, knitting, video, and drawing manifest vast, otherworldly landscapes. In her sculptures, yarn and thread form mountainous cones and internal organs, while her drawings depict mystical creatures with exaggerated, morphing smiley faces. Her embrace of spirituality and psychedelia is genuine, but she also explores humankind’s darker side through her allusions to nuclear destruction and the pervasive imagery of mass marketing.
Gastaldon has shown in group and solo exhibitions at Nottingham Contemporary, England (2013), Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris (2013), Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland (2012), Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland (2012), the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (2010), Musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, France (2009), Salon 94, New York (2008), New Art Gallery Walsall, England (2008), the Swiss Institute, New York (2007), the Busan Biennale, South Korea (2006), the Grand Palais, Paris (2006), the Biennale de Lyon, France (2005), and Centre d’art Contemporain, Geneva (2003), among others.
