Peter Shmelzer
I see visual art as a method of measuring and reflecting the world and our place in it. Like the written or spoken word, it is a system for elucidating that which evades our immediate understanding. There is a contemporary compulsion to impose trends and to forecast even the most ephemeral and unpredictable of things through the endless collection of data. Though this has yielded great social/scientific/economic fruit, it may be ill-suited to deal with the absurdity of human interaction. Images that work entirely outside the world of reason may be better-suited to telling the story of how we act and interact.
I have tried, in my work, to create a mythological vocabulary outside of traditional religious or historical systems. Characters are set outside of identifiable context (they cannot be placed in time or located in a particular culture) but their faces are real, familiar, human faces that may remind the viewer of a neighbour or a friend (though, admittedly, gone terribly wrong). The primary aim is to evoke an emotional response and, then, to allow the viewer to speculate on the narrative. Why are these people here? How did they get this way? What are they doing to each other?
I work in traditional media: “wet into wet” oil painting on canvas; single-use plaster molds, cast from clay figures; ornamental cabinetry. This is important for two reasons. For me, these traditional processes are endlessly challenging: there is an opportunity to continually improve and there is no threat of coming to the end of possibilities. For the viewer, regardless of the content they are faced with, the forms create an immediate association with museum-style “Art”.
This latest work explores, among other things, the duality of traditional figure painting, which often uses figures as both real characters, living real moments, and as bloodless icons of human vices, virtues and concerns. It is my sincere hope that viewers will recognize in these images a reflection of both the creepiness and silliness of contemporary human life: scary monsters, sweet babies; slaps and tickles.
