Gretchen Faust
Gretchen Faust (born 1961 in Stoneham, Massachusetts, USA) is an American contemporary artist, performer, art historian, and yoga instructor who lives and works in Totnes, Devon, United Kingdom. She is known for her visual art and performance work at galleries in New York, Pittsburgh and Zürich. Education. Faust earned a BA at Smith College ( 1983)and an MFA (1986) at Hunter College. Work. In the early 1990s she became known for using the tip of an ice pick to write text fragments from lectures on art history into gallery walls. In her more recent works, she produced mandala-like  paper cutouts, engraved plinths made of Portland stone, photographs of paired handguns, or pairs of large, rug-like circles made of rabbit skins, and camouflage material laid out on the floor. In 2013, Martin Herbert wrote: "Nevertheless, there are consistently continuities: symmetry and asymmetry, sophistication and violence and a variable and explicit focus on cutting, punching, firing - penetrating the surface of things". Faust has described her artwork as similar to yoga: "I’d say the personal process is the same. Cultivating presence and intimacy. And the outcome can result in different forms, depending on the circumstances of intention and form