Hin­ter­land II
Sandra Schmidt

Michael Hirschfeld Gal­lery
(at City Gal­lery)
10 Octo­ber – 18 Novem­ber 2007

The crys­tal­line shapes and icy-col­oured forms of Sandra Schmidt’s Hin­ter­land II make up the sequel exhib­i­tion to her 2006 hot-hued Hin­ter­land which appeared at Mary New­ton Gal­lery, Wel­ling­ton. The earli­er spiky-shaped works in Hin­ter­land expressed ideas of fire, heat, pres­sure and fric­tion. In Hin­ter­land II the focus is on cool col­ours and ref­er­ences to ice and water. Both extremes of tem­per­at­ure rep­res­ent inhos­pit­able areas, the back coun­try or under­developed place, either meta­phor­ic­al or real.

(more after the jump)

Schmidt’s works com­prise of many small, often identic­al units which build up into wall or floor-based install­a­tion pieces; this is a sys­tem which uni­fies her diverse mater­i­al use. A stand-out fea­ture of Schmidt’s prac­tice is her abstract wall-based works made from Hama beads, which are man­u­fac­tured as a chil­dren’s craft activ­ity mater­i­al. The beads are painstak­ingly built-up into col­oured shapes which are then melted togeth­er to form hardened back­less paint­ings. As the indi­vidu­al beads retain some of their pixel-like shape after heat­ing, the abstract forms leave them­selves open to mul­tiple inter­pret­a­tions; from com­puter pixels to knit­ting pat­terns, to poin­til­list paint­ings. Schmidt’s palette has a retro feel about it; dull, pale col­ours are placed beside vibrant primary col­ours, with the effect of play­fully clash­ing and shim­mer­ing against each oth­er.

Sandra Schmidt was born in Zwickau, East Ger­many in 1976 and is now a NZ res­id­ent liv­ing in Wel­ling­ton. In 2003 she gained a Mas­ters in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden, Ger­many. Her most recent solo exhib­i­tions include: Hin­ter­land, Mary New­ton Gal­lery, Wel­ling­ton, 2006; Soli­lo­quy, Enjoy Pub­lic Art Gal­lery, Wel­ling­ton, 2005, and Divided Skies, Whakatane Art Museum, 2003. Schmidt is rep­res­en­ted by Mary New­ton Gal­lery, Wel­ling­ton.

City Gal­lery