Laura Schnitger,
Fina, 1996.
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the artnet hit list
by John Mendelsohn
lara schnitger
at anton kern gallery
Nov. 2 - 23, 1996
The artist transforms herself in 30
"sculpture skits" in the ten-minute video,
Goose Bumps, by distorting her face with
clear tape, filling her mouth and eye
sockets with clay, twisting her lips on a
glass dish, and getting snagged by a finger
up her nose. In Lara Schnitger's hands the
grotesque is not awful, but weirdly
playful. This spirit continues in the "Face
Fugues," a series of symmetrical
photocollages in which multiple fingers
make human faces into monsters.
The Dutch artist continues her speculative
biology with Fina, a room-sized sculpture,
vaguely in the shape of a sea urchin. This
creature's soft body is thin white plastic
form-fitted like loose clothing over a
skeleton of black polyethylene strips
stretched tight from the surrounding walls,
an ephemeral construction with the feeling
of a rather buoyant gathering of phantom
protoplasm.
Accompanying Fina (to be replaced by a new
piece on Nov. 26) is Delicate Dude, an
abstract standing figure in profile made of
papier mache, nine feet tall and one inch
thick, like a slice from a body for the
study of physiology. He is featureless
except for his brain which is hinged ajar--
apparently keeping an open mind.
Reviews 1996 Archives
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