Dot
Schneider
For
the past five years, Dot Schneider has been swimming
in a pool of nail enamel and motor oil. Powder blushers,
eye shadows, and lipstick round out the cosmetic cache.
Such nontraditional materials are employed to uncover
the cover girl, to examine where beauty begins and
where it ends, and to make of all that glorious flesh
in the middle. These explorations are meant to be
humorous and revealing.
In
Schneider's recent work, she examines "A Lover's
Discourse: fragments" by Roland Barthes, drawing
on his book as reference for deconstructing the relationship
between the lover and the loved one (or object) using
self-portraiture as her vehicle while remaining faithful
to cosmetics as her medium. this is the first volume
of paintings in a series of nine is a testament of
"love letters, bandages and screams." (Douglas
Max Utter, Angle Magazine #10). The focal point for
many of the paintings in the first volume, titled
"Reflections and Complaints of the Lover When
Alone" is mouth, which is the fount of the lover's
discourse. Each painting is stamped on the frame with
its title, alluding to Barthes' interest in the visual
Aesthetic of the text.
Schneider
is continuing to study "A Lover's Discourse"
with the next two volumes titled "Loss"
and "Glee," and propose to show them together.
Both volumes will contain 10 paintings, all mixed
media (read: cosmetics) on galvanized steel and remain
faithful to a square format. Wherein "Reflections
and Complaints" purposefully handed over a voyeuristic
experience, these pieces intend to bring the viewer
literally and figuratively into the work.
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