Founded in 2021, Rumpelstiltskin is an artistic brand created by Harrison Pfaff. Just as the minikin spent nights spinning straw into gold, Rumpelstiltskin uses quotidian materials to create pieces that transcend the mundane; allowing fantasy to enter reality.

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Throughout our day to day we are driven by desire for one thing or another. Depending on who we engage with and how, our motivations can either be seen or unseen. I am interested in modulating the difference between narratives of “play” and “game.” For example, playing as a conscious way to engage in healthy, unadulterated fun as an individual or in community; and games as the unconscious ways we behave to create safety, peace or prosperity, but which ultimately sabotage the chance of any. The roles and games that we play in life are results of our motivations or inner desires, and are, unforgivingly, performances. I perform through my art to address the narrator’s perspective.

 

I am investigating power vs. control, performance, and the power of viewership through a range of media. By working sculpturally, often painting on unnatural sewn, or found grounds, and by exploring unorthodox ways to shape my surfaces, I am able to challenge my audience’s perception. I use game pieces to dig up nostalgia and bring out inner child-like wants. To redirect the viewers attention, I use imagery such as teeth, mirrors, and hands to address psychological fears. I enjoy creating visual structures only to break them; and my work often toys with entropy as a mode of paradoxical discourse. I seek connection with my audience by utilising space and technique to question a range of perspectives.

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Harrison Pfaff, graduated from Tyler School of Art with a BFA in Painting and Drawing in 2019. Since 2017, they have been employed at Mural Arts as an Assistant Muralist. Their most recent exhibit, Peep Show (2019), displayed a variety of painting, sculpture, prints and an ongoing body of performative work, A Royal Flush. Their inspirators include Marcel Duchamp’s Étant donnés (1966), Marc Chagall’s costumes for the Met Opera’s production of The Marriage of Figaro (1967), and The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula (2017-2019). 

 

To view more of their work visit https://rumpelstiltskin.myportfolio.com/ .