The Nelson-Freeman Gallery is pleased to announce Anne-Marie Schneider’s second personal exhibition. Her artistic productions mainly consist of drawings, and have progressively been including films and sometimes sculptures. In 2003 she had a personal exhibition at the ARC – the Paris Museum of Modern Art – which was curated by Angeline Scherf. She also took part in the 2005 edition of the Printemps de Septembre festival in Toulouse. Anne-Marie Schneider’s films and drawings are currently shown in the Airs de Paris exhibition, at the Centre Georges Pompidou under Christine Macel’s curatorial supervision, and until August 15th 2007.
The way Anne-Marie Schneider draws is similar to writing in a diary : her drawings proceed from an urge to sublimate and emphasize reality; they portray daily life the way it is perceived by the subconscious, and often manage to transcribe unspeakable emotions and sensations. Some of the shapes used appear with different purposes of representation. The circle for example, is sometimes used for its cocoon-like protective form, and sometimes as an element of constraining confinement. Other shapes are used and reproduced in series as a pattern, giving us the feeling that the artist uses them over an over to exorcize an event: tree-head or bandage-head. The drawings presented in the exhibition, whether one looks at them all together or individually, show Anne-Marie’s evolution towards colour and bring-up a great variety of subjects: a slaves wheel, a series of brains, a series formed of a head and buttons, rain drops, flames, arrows… In that show, the artist mainly presents, two central groups of drawings.
The first one consists of brain drawings, and comes as an immersion in the human head. They depict a germination process in several steps: two linked neurons, with on that then germinates; then the brain splits in two, and the whole head appears with a brain on fire… Far from showing us a horrific image, Anne-Marie Schneider gives a poetic, and yet undiminished vision of what can happen inside the human brain. The other group of drawings is formed of 6 works that can almost constitute a flipbook. A head appears on the first drawing that almost looks like a skull; its outlines look very pale on the paper, and we can see a button in the place of the mouth. As we go through the other drawings it seems that the sketches come together, making the head more precise. The series ends on a metamorphosis: a more human and tormented head hides behind an arm…
The artist also shows a sculpture made out of 11 elements. It represents knitted spheres and a character composed of buttons, which re-employs the brain symbols for yet another form.
In that exhibition Anne-Marie also presents her 4th film, recorded in Super 8 like the previous ones, under the title “Comme un chien”. That film uses the classic theme of death, but in a way to which we can easily relate, contrasting the media who usually approach it with a sensational angle. To do so, the artist uses an extract from Kafka’s “The Trial” and reinterprets it. The project itself takes the form of a documentary where real-life scenes and animation images using the artist’s drawings alternate. That constant back and forth from one form to the other emphasises the metaphorical nature of what the artist relates.
Anne-Marie Schneider’s representations oscillate between dream and reality in a constant and irrational way; that frail and intimate universe is the setting for a sometimes sardonic poetry of fantasy without innocence. Whether it is trough drawing, painting or filming she gives a vision that can be frightening, and that yet inspires empathy, a vision both real and imaginary of our inner world.
The way Anne-Marie Schneider draws is similar to writing in a diary : her drawings proceed from an urge to sublimate and emphasize reality; they portray daily life the way it is perceived by the subconscious, and often manage to transcribe unspeakable emotions and sensations. Some of the shapes used appear with different purposes of representation. The circle for example, is sometimes used for its cocoon-like protective form, and sometimes as an element of constraining confinement. Other shapes are used and reproduced in series as a pattern, giving us the feeling that the artist uses them over an over to exorcize an event: tree-head or bandage-head. The drawings presented in the exhibition, whether one looks at them all together or individually, show Anne-Marie’s evolution towards colour and bring-up a great variety of subjects: a slaves wheel, a series of brains, a series formed of a head and buttons, rain drops, flames, arrows… In that show, the artist mainly presents, two central groups of drawings.
The first one consists of brain drawings, and comes as an immersion in the human head. They depict a germination process in several steps: two linked neurons, with on that then germinates; then the brain splits in two, and the whole head appears with a brain on fire… Far from showing us a horrific image, Anne-Marie Schneider gives a poetic, and yet undiminished vision of what can happen inside the human brain. The other group of drawings is formed of 6 works that can almost constitute a flipbook. A head appears on the first drawing that almost looks like a skull; its outlines look very pale on the paper, and we can see a button in the place of the mouth. As we go through the other drawings it seems that the sketches come together, making the head more precise. The series ends on a metamorphosis: a more human and tormented head hides behind an arm…
The artist also shows a sculpture made out of 11 elements. It represents knitted spheres and a character composed of buttons, which re-employs the brain symbols for yet another form.
In that exhibition Anne-Marie also presents her 4th film, recorded in Super 8 like the previous ones, under the title “Comme un chien”. That film uses the classic theme of death, but in a way to which we can easily relate, contrasting the media who usually approach it with a sensational angle. To do so, the artist uses an extract from Kafka’s “The Trial” and reinterprets it. The project itself takes the form of a documentary where real-life scenes and animation images using the artist’s drawings alternate. That constant back and forth from one form to the other emphasises the metaphorical nature of what the artist relates.
Anne-Marie Schneider’s representations oscillate between dream and reality in a constant and irrational way; that frail and intimate universe is the setting for a sometimes sardonic poetry of fantasy without innocence. Whether it is trough drawing, painting or filming she gives a vision that can be frightening, and that yet inspires empathy, a vision both real and imaginary of our inner world.