genuinefake – interview: ‘I use my creative practice to try to start conversations and dialogue about access, our aspirations … and agency’

Published 02/08/2021

genuinefake – interview: ‘I use my creative practice to try to start conversations and dialogue about access, our aspirations … and agency’

Along Folkestone’s seafront, the artist genuinefake (AKA Rachel Stella Jenkins) has conjured a temporary geodesic dome of playful community-led investigation around Folkestone’s past and future, on the site of the Rotunda, the former amusement arcade building. Studio International asked her where the idea for this structure came from and what it is trying to achieve

Calling it Fortune Here, Jenkins (b1983 Mozambique) draws on arcade games and crazy golf to amuse locals and ignite discussion around the narratives that play out on the tables and in the pastel-pink crazy golf destinations on the deck beyond, each one representing a landmark Folkestone structure.

genuinefake. Fortune Here, Folkestone Triennial 2021. Photo: Martin Kennedy.

Her beautifully illustrated and executed games invite residents to address contemporary issues around ownership and opportunity, as well as the diverse priorities of Folkestone’s communities, to interrogate whose fortunes are likely to rise and fall as Folkestone evolves.

genuinefake. Fortune Here, Folkestone Triennial 2021. Photo: Martin Kennedy.