In her work Grüne-Yanoff examines the individual’s charged relationship with the outside world. She does so through a character, Cassandra, who has inhabited her work for more than a decade. Cassandra is a grounded being who watches the skies, thinking about transformation, and flight.
Cassandra wanders through Grüne-Yanoff’s objects, workshops, performances and award winning films.
One aspect of Grüne-Yanoff’s practice is independent exploration through multimedia artwork, another is community-based activism through art. Often, these two components join forces.
Over the last years, while actively exhibiting her work, Grüne-Yanoff has created workshops with people who identify as immigrants, migrants, refugees, expats and native-born residents to provide coping tools, and expand strategies of understanding and integration.
Through guided dialogues on topics such as home, belonging, and identity, she helps people unfold their stories, build community and participate in the creation of artworks shared with audiences around the world.
Recent workshops include seniors/students/undocumented citizens in USA; seniors/refugees /youth in Sweden; journalists from the former Soviet Union. Current (zoom) workshops are with youth in Iran, and young women of diverse backgrounds in Mexico and Sweden.
Grüne-Yanoff has given talks on her workshops at institutions including Oxford University, Stockholm School of Economics and Rutgers University, among others.
One workshop series was made into the documentary “Community is a Safety Net” by Swedish filmmaker Charlotta Hayes.
Swedish documentary filmmaker Charlotta Hayes’s short film about my project "Community is a Safety Net". Charlotta spent a few months following one of my workshops and the process of how that transforms in my studio.
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