Gutinke Meine (My Sweetest One) is a sculpture series, of adorable creatures by Fringe. The title of the work is taken from a term of endearment in Yiddish, the language of the Ashkenazim, central and eastern European Jews and their descendants. Directed at children, or lovers, ‘Gutinke Meine’ is language made soft.
In the artist’s most recent sculptures, it is softness made solid. The metaphorical essence of the work monumentalises the joyful moments of childhood, epitomised in the fantasy of animals as companions and friends.
The sculpture is imagined as a love of the child, and of the family as a whole. But as an abandoned toy, now situated in memory, the moment of its usefulness is past, yet it is still shrouded in affection.
It is integral to the artist’s most recent exploration of objects that trigger feelings of nostalgia, and emotional wellbeing from ecstatic events of the past.
The sculpture is imagined as a love of the child, and of the family as a whole. But as an abandoned toy, now situated in memory, the moment of its usefulness is past, yet it is still shrouded in affection.
It is integral to the artist’s most recent exploration of objects that trigger feelings of nostalgia, and emotional wellbeing from ecstatic events of the past.