LARA SCHNITGER "MY OTHER CAR IS A BROOM"
12 MARCH–5 JUNE 2005

Lara Schnitger
Born 1969 in Haarlem, the Netherlands, lives and works in Los Angeles, USA

"Schnitger is a vital part of a young flourishing art scene in LA that is very active and multi faceted. Her sculptures and installations combine a feeling of the metropolis with that of home-made craft."
Richard Julin, exhibition curator

In dialogue with previous key works Lara Schnitger has created a number of new works for the exhibition at Magasin 3. The titles of the artwork unveil her sources of inspiration, ranging from American housewives to futile men. Lara Schnitger works with fabric. Flowery or checkered figures challenge and relate to each another. In a very personal way she deals with humor, eroticism, and politics in her works reminding of clothes as well as architecture. In the same way as the separate pieces are made of collages of fabrics, when put together the artist wants them to form a new entity, a new tableau.

"Gridlock" is the first artwork the visitors encounter in the exhibition spaces. Resembling a wall of colorful pennants the work functioned as a screen dividing the room while Schnitger's exhibition was being installed. For the opening the piece was transformed, like a spider web it found its way to the other works, and now is rather leading the visitors into the exhibition.

The title of the exhibition is "My Other Car is a Broom". It is one of many messages selected from the car bumper stickers included in the work "Gridlock". Schnitger has repeatedly incorporated texts in her work, using them as signs and signals. The work also refers to Japanese construction sites, Tibetan prayer flags, and the election movements in USA. This is telling for Schnitger's way of working. She piles impressions onto each other, letting places and events fuse together to form new meanings. Schnitger who has traveled extensively and lived in the Netherlands, USA, and Japan, among other countries, is interested in different cultures and the clashes they may cause. Describing a visit to a Japanese Buddhist temple she concludes: "In Japan I saw Barbie dolls and Hello Kitty next to old stone sculptures. I feel that our times are like that. This mixture of things makes perfect sense to me."

In the exhibition the artist has created a variety of different moods. "Piece of Shit" is a reaction to the American invasion of Iraq. It is supposed to take up space, be hard to get past. The artist describes the work as "a fat, not that elegant, stubborn, big piece". For the installation "The Only One" Schnitger has recorded songs. The songs are associative comments to the other works. She finds the record embarrassing - a feeling she wants to capture, and also values. The setting is inspired by a trip to Tibet and the cozy interiors of temples and teahouses she came across. In yet another room the sticks supporting the fabric have been removed, the fabrics are just hanging, the sculptures are deflated. The emotional width in Schnitger's work becomes apparent. Maybe a feeling of sadness exists here, in contrast to the obvious humor present in many of the other works.

"My Other Car is a Broom" is the first presentation of Schnitger in Sweden. She was born in the Netherlands, 1969, but resides in Los Angeles. Lara Schnitger has exhibited in venues across Europe, USA, and Asia, including Kunst-Werke, Berlin, 2000; Statement, Basel Art Fair, 2001; and P.S.1, New York, 2002. She has received grants from the Mondriaan Foundation and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Her work is currently on view at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles in an exhibition including works by several of Los Angeles's upcoming artists.

An interview with the artist by Richard Julin is published in the exhibition catalogue.

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CONTENTS:
Prologue by David Neuman, director Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall Conversation January 9, 2005, Los Angeles between Lara Schnitger, artist, and Richard Julin, curator Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall. Exhibition catalogue no 33 ISBN 91-974236-6-1. 40 pages, color, illustrated, soft cover. Texts in Swedish/English. Published 2005 by Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall.
Price: 150 SEK (approx. 15 EUR)

Conversation between Lara Schnitger, artist, and Richard Julin, curator Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall
January 9, 2005, Los Angeles

Richard Julin: Lara, you're from Holland, travel a lot, have spent a longer time in Japan and currently live and work in Los Angeles. How important is the place you live in to your art?

Lara Schnitger: I have a pretty restless mind but you have to stop in some place for some time. What is interesting to me about L.A. is partly that a lot of my travels over the years come together in this city. Los Angeles has so many different areas that are authentic to their foreign origin, as far as you can be within another culture. Like Little Tokyo near my studio, where you can go shopping in entirely Japanese stores, for example. After living in Japan for a year I learned what culture is to me. Before going there I had never thought more deeply about my own culture, but the shock of being in Japan showed me that culture is like a comforter. Like actually wanting to go to McDonald's in Tokyo just to feel a bit more normal, because that's a place you recognize. It's that feeling of being uncomfortable that I like to use within my work. I want to continue to challenge myself and let things from outside influence me. And as I said, L.A. lets this happen in one place. Things come together here for me. For example there is a huge Buddhist temple life going on here. I love temples as places where art gets made, often in the most eclectic way. Churches I think are for painters and temples are great for sculptors, like me! Buddhist temples have great installations in them. In some of these temples people give water to the gods, but some times they end up giving Coca Cola or sake bottles. In a temple in Japan I saw Barbie dolls and Hello Kitty next to the old stone sculptures. I feel that our times are like that. L.A. certainly is. This mixture of things that makes perfect sense to me ties in with my hopes that art can somehow be universal.

RJ: During the construction of your exhibition we have to shut off your space since two other exhibitions are open to the public at Magasin 3. We started talking about this fact, which then led to a major new work, "Gridlock". The actual work will shut off the space. Once the show opens you'll transform the piece into something new, incorporated into the exhibition.

LS: Yes. During my first visit to Stockholm we spoke about shutting off the space for practical purposes. It very soon brought up my fascination for Japanese construction sites. While I was in Japan I took tons of photos of these sites. So I thought if we need to put a sign up and some kind of rope telling people that the show is under construction I wanted to play with that. I've worked with patch works before and in relation to those started thinking about signs, texts, walls and the fact that you'll bump into this new work, especially before the show actually opens. Back in America this got mixed with Bush getting re-elected. At that time I had just made a lot of anti-war T-shirts. Together with a bunch of friends we were part of those who really tried to help getting Kerry elected. After the election we were all so sad. The one thing that sort of remained here were all these stickers on cars that you always see, where people post the wishes or views that they have. It's like you constantly bump into these wishes, these bumper stickers. Before I went to Sweden I had spent some time in Tibet where all these prayer flags hang around, flying in the wind with hopes that these prayers might come true. I connected the prayer flags with bumper stickers put on the back of cars, the little prayers we might have. Like "My other car is a broom" or "Keep your rosaries off of my ovaries". Or "I love cats - They taste like chicken"! I saw that one on a guy's truck out in the Midwest. Maybe he hates cat lovers or something... I guess he just wants to insult them by saying he would eat cats. Just really weird! Anyway, it was so interesting to start choosing slogans to be included into the work. To me this new piece is a celebration of my new relationship to politics. Now I try to do my best with my own way of living. The work I'm making is very crafty, handmade and uses the help of friends, hopefully helping them by doing so. I do believe in that. For example, "Gridlock", has been sown by a woman I know in Mexico. Her husband died really young and she has three children that she's trying to get through university. So it feels really great to be able to give these jobs to her. I try to live that way and I also try to have that feeling in the show. Some pieces may be really big and spectacular, but there's always this feeling that this is made by a human.

RJ: "Gridlock" will hang like a big wall shutting off your exhibition spaces about a month before the entire show opens.

LS: The visitors who come when the exhibition space is shut will get all these little messages about religion, politics, nature and feminism. Later this wall will change and move, go into the space. Working with exhibitions that transform is something I've done before. I want my work to be alive somehow. To create something beyond my own life and my own energy. I guess that's the moment I feel that a piece is working, it's done, there's something happening. It klicks.

RJ: Once the entire show has opened, the first work after "Gridlock" is a large sculpture.

LS: "Piece of Shit", that's what the piece is called. I made that piece when America invaded Irak and I'd gotten really angry at politics. I was really involved in that before. "Piece of Shit" shouts it out and hates that the world is based on corporate money bullshit. It's a fucked up thing. You'll walk into the exhibition space and hit this big super punk rock piece. This is all my own tape made silkscreen. Compared to most of my work it's a very solid piece. It's a fat, not that elegant, stubborn, big piece. The messages are just shouting out of it. I tried to make a powerful move. I want it there because I like how it connects the "flags" that you see first with the other three-dimensional work that you will see later in the show. It's a link. Also it's really like "if you can get past this motherfucker, you're going to be fine"! Kind of like a test. I like to play with the expectations of people. I'm hoping to bring in that fact into the show right away.

RJ: The next area in the show is probably the most dense. It's filled with a number of new sculptures that you've made here in L.A., installed together with a selection of older works.

LS: I see that area as this gang of weird creatures, kind of hanging out together. They create a little scene together. I work with collages of the fabrics in the pieces themselves and the pieces will collage together into a new tableau. That's how I hope for it to work. The pieces are different characters. Some are more figurative, some more abstract. They're influenced by people I see around. Like for example the sweater piece that's in the show. A friend was talking about these wild housewives you see sometimes. They're really big and wear amazing weird looking purple sweaters. They're often seen as low class and ugly. I wanted to change the view of these ladies into something really beautiful. So I made this flower bouquet-like hourglass figure. Then there's the guy with the raincoat, the flasher. It's a kind of raincoat opened up by sticks where you can see his inner structure with all these horses running wild. That sculpture really opens up and you can see what's going on inside. (...)

Excerpt from the catalogue "My Other Car is a Broom" published by Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall.

WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION

"Alma", 2002
cotton thread, string, wood
91 x 88 x 91cm

"Almita", 2002
cotton thread, string, wood
58 x 58 x 58 cm

"Drag", 2000
fabric, wood, pins
130 x 375 x 330 cm

"Fashion Victim", 2004
fabric, fur, wood, plastic, watch, foam, pins
240 x 130 x 110 cm

"Gridlock", 2005
cotton, ribbon, size variable

"Huppel Kutje", 2005
fabric, lace, wood, pins
240 x 130 x 85 cm

"Jealous Flasher", 2002
collage of fabric
357 x 110 cm

"Mobile Mom", 2002
fabric, wood, pins, socks
315 x 317 x 317 cm

"The Only One", 2005
room installation with vinyl record, carpet, fabric

"Piece of Shit", 2004
fabric, wood, pins
275 x 260 x 250 cm

"Potloodventer", 2003
raincoats, fabric, net-stockings, wood, belts, pins
180 x 160 x 210 cm/p>

"Prankster", 2000
plaid, wood, pins
228 x 101 x 101 cm

"Pussy Pillows", 2001
three works: leather, embroidery
each 15 x 38 cm

"Return of the Dodo", 2005
fabric, fur, wood, pins
310 x 260 x 80 cm

"3-D Dog", 2000
plaid, handkerchiefs, wood, leather, metal rings, pins
130 x 180 x 140 cm

"Time Traveler", 2005
wood, fur, fabric, watches, pearls
220 x 10 x 10 cm

"Touch and Smell Only", 1999
plaid, wood, pins
185 x 105 x 85 cm

"Vanity Man", 2002
fabric, ties, organza, wood, pins
173 x 183 x 183 cm

"Wonder Twins", 2002
two works: fabric, wood, pins
each 235 x 180 x 170 cm

"Queen of Hearts", 2003
cotton, velvet, ribbons, wood, pins
245 x 163 x 50 cm

"XXL", 2005 sweaters, wood, pins, fabric
245 x 135 x 120 cm

All works courtesy the artist and Anton Kern Gallery.

Magasin 3 audio guide

duration 11 mins, in English

© Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, 2006

Download the programme and listen to the artist Fabice Gygi talk about his artistry and works. Fabrice Gygi guides us round the exhibition at Magasin 3, and talks about his works. He mentions "Tente Bar" (1997) and "Sound system sur chariot" (1997), then he moves on to "Local de vote" (2001), "Airbag Generation Yellow" (2001), "Cross Blocks" (2001), "Mine" (2003) and "Plafonnier" (2003), "Vigie" (2002,), "Gentleman's Agreement" - a performance (2002) and finally, his new works "Aquarium" and "Chèvre", created for the exhibition at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall.

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