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Stefanie Schneider
Radha Mind Screen, Contemporary, Figurative, Woman, Polaroid, Photograph

1999

About the Item

Radha Mind Screen (29 Palms, CA) - 1999 128x125cm, Edition 5/5, Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper Based on the Polaroid, Certificate and Signature label, artist Inventory #274.17, Not mounted. The works of Stefanie Schneider evoke Ed Ruscha's obsession with the American experience, the richness of Georgia O'Keefe's deserts and the loneliness of Edward Hopper's haunting paintings. So how exactly did this German photographer become one of the most important artists of the American narrative of the 20th and 21st century? Stefanie Schneider was born and raised in Germany but lives and works in Southern California. Exploring the American dream and capturing it with Polaroid instant film. Situated on the verge of an elusive super-reality, her photographic sequences provide the ambiance for loosely woven storylines and a cast of phantasmic characters that reflect a part of the narrator's life told from her perspective. Often about love, communication. sexuality and relationships. Schneider works with the chemical mutations of expired Polaroid film stock. Chemical explosions of color spreading across the surfaces undermine the photograph's commitment to reality and induce her characters into trance-like dreamscapes. Like flickering sequences of old road movies, Schneider's images seem to evaporate before conclusions can be made - their ephemeral reality manifesting in subtle gestures and mysterious motives. Schneider's images refuse to succumb to reality, they keep alive the confusions of dream, desire, fact, and fiction yet they also explore the relationship between the medium and the viewer. The wabi-sabi 'ness' of Schneider's work can not be denied or ignored. It's a step of acceptance of 'flaws', gaps, and distortions. Missing pieces of the puzzle. The artist flaunts, uses, and exposes the unknown using expired Polaroid instant film intentionally. Presents it. What you do with that is up to you. That missing part of the picture is for you to include yourself, you fill it in with yourself. That might be critical that it's there at all, missing and missing the entire point altogether or by filling in the unknown with their own imagination. Even their own memories then integrate the viewer and artist as one with limitless potential. "My dream of accepting so called 'imperfection' is in fact a realizing of a different world view. Formally, my work was called blurry or broken but they fail in the test of acceptance that all things are imperfect. It's a seismic shift for some but in this age where the cracks are no longer hidden, the affirmation of reality is still difficult. The celebration of imperfection reconnects us to the real world where we normally mask our flaws. I chose Polaroid film because it portrays color like candy making even the broken an expression of endearment. The combination of the color and the blemishes of expired Polaroid analog film gave me a sense of inner peace with my surroundings. It just fit. Nothing had portrayed my vision so symbolically. "The film schools I went to scoffed at my discovery blinded by the very imperfections that expressed my passion and love. The quirks, oddities or the perfectly imperfect uniqueness of my work relate to our own life blemishes and somehow make them ok or even remarkable. Honoring that value of imperfection makes it permissible to be. At least for me... I plan engagements in spontaneity for any new project or photoshoot. Allowing space and time for the magic moment to manifest and capturing that enchantment. I use my senses and current affairs to plot that path of serendipity especially when it's a mark of turbulence. The upheaval of balance is the key for chance and allows all unknown forces to contribute to the moment. I look inside myself, ground that emotion and imagine it in a dream because dreams are the foundation of emotion and the link to our sub-conscience. I try to clarify my nightly dreams subjectively with a cup of nostalgia in a bowl of emotions and sprinkle it generously with sex. It is there, the fountain of our instincts." Stefanie Schneider

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Mind Screen - (50x50cm) - Contemporary, Abstract, Horse, Polaroid, 21st Century,
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Mind Screen (Last Picture Show) 50 x 50 cm, 2005, Edition 1/10. Digital C-Print based on a Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist Inventory 1043.22. Not mounted Stefa...
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