EXHIBITION PORTFOLIO 3
MARIE SCHWARZ R.I.P TWO
COVID 19 HOUSE EXHIBITION 2020
This Covid 19 House Exhibition revolves around my mother who died in 2019.
This Exhibition concluded my work which spanned the first lockdown period during Covid 19.
It coincided with the last weeks of my five year part time Fine Art Degree.
My kitchen opposite, became my studio.
I documented my work employing my iPhone to record images and videos.
ALL PROJECTS OVERVIEW
Here is a quick look at all the projects I was working on concurrently in my Covid kitchen studio.
NOD TO ARTE POVERA (right leg section)
This work is based on the seventies Italian Arte Povera movement (poor art).
It coincides beautifully with life during Covid. Daily I collected resources from my household recycling. Here I have used fabrics belonging to my mother, my daughter, and myself.
I have played with fabrics such as a crochet blanket (left front leg), which references my grandmothers and their needlework. Layers of binding and painting are used to build up firm bundles which can be hung individually or placed together.
Here they resemble a street figure huddled in a corner under the plastic awning.
They also evoke parallel ideas for me of both Body Bags and rubbish heaps.
Both ideas are unfortunately relevant for current times.
BALANCE BIKE ONE/ FECKIN NIGHTIE
My daughter R's Balance Bike. This bike is now eight years old and R is eleven. This bike gave her support and freedom to go forward alone and play with speed and balance.
I have very potent memories of the Christmas it arrived. Slight snow on the ground and R's winter coat blowing behind her, a hand me down from my sister's friend. She shot ahead of us down the hill. We couldn't believe her speed and surety. A goat child, always climbing but landing on her feet.
Cardboard Shadow Balance Bikes parked and awaiting bodywork.
This work is constructed to celebrate a moment in time caught on an iPhone.
My husband's work jacket covers the back end of the bike. My scarlet felted cardigan covers the front.
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The bike is bound with string, dyed with fluorescent yellow inks. This colour highlights daughter R’s energy and vibrancy.
This is a work which recognises a different type of loss. Parental loss.
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We guide our children. As with teaching them to ride their bikes. Then we must concede that they are a person in their own right. We acknowledge that we have to step back and let them learn to a certain extent on their own. We become the shadow, and they thrive in the light.
KITCHEN TABLE/MOMMERO
The camera pans from two of the FOUR BOARDS LEADING TO A MOTHER, to a large oval found wood table. This work is part of a bigger project entitled 'Mommero'.
Inside the rim of the upended table, I have placed specific recipes, oil paint photo cards and plastic sample pots of colour. Mono prints of Gran (opposite), Nana, and Mom.
A universal kitchen table hosting ideas and memories of a family past. The two red lights reference my daughter R and myself.
BODY BAG EXPLORATION
Based on INGREDIENTS OF A MOTHER created in 2019, this work evolved very slowly over the duration of the first Covid 19 period.
We had a wake for my mother when she died in 2019. I think wakes were created to support those left behind. The arrival of friends, neighbours and family was a huge comfort. We felt enormously supported by our community.
Hearing of families, who were not able to be with their loved ones during Covid 19 as they passed, struck a chord with me.
How can grief be fully experienced if the family do not have access to the body?
How can funeral arrangements give comfort without the support of a community to celebrate and acknowledge a life lived?
Under these circumstances can closure be achieved after a death?
This is an ongoing Project.
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MONOPRINTS
Monoprinting is a beautiful form of printing. It is achieved by hand and no printing press is necessary.
I was able to carry on monoprinting from my Covid kitchen studio.
Below is daughter R and her mirror image monoprint.
COMMISSIONS
In my kitchen studio I created printed layers on paper before I began monoprinting.
Monoprinting works beautifully from photographs.
It is the perfect process for engaging a commission. Contact me for a chat.
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These are monoprints of my daughter R, my mom, my gran (mom's mom), my nana (dad's mom) and myself. They are part of a larger ongoing project entitled 'Mommero'.
Here I have used layered printed pre-prepped paper.
I am tracing our lives. Looking at commonalities in personality, colour, dress, backgrounds, education, marriage, location, and energies.
This work was housed for my Covid House Exhibition in the Hot Press, (airing cupboard) within the bathroom.
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FOUR BOARDS LEADING TO A MOTHER
Four boards, created from one found board. Each one deals with a timeline.
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Board One is Mom, up to the year she gets married at twenty-nine.
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Board Two is from her thirties to her forty-third Birthday before I was born.
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Board Three is from my birth to my start in Trinity College to train as an actor, a span of seventeen years.
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Board Four is from Moms sixtieth year to her death in 2019.
BOARD NUMBER THREE BOARD NUMBER FOUR
My iPhone camera pans from BODY BAG NUMBER TWO, to follow the string-line outside into the Annex,
to BOARDS NUMBER ONE AND TWO. These boards are currently wall hung. Their next reincarnation will be as a stack of paving stones. A time capsule of stones. Like an old glass paving grid. Each one lit from underneath to illuminate the board below.
With each new work I play with curatorial ideas of placement.
BOARD NUMBER THREE - GRIEF
MARIMORIAL
Marie Memorial. My mother's name sculpted into a 3D memory.
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This work encompasses ideas of past works, searching for a way to validate my own memories.
Encasing them for eternity like a treasure time capsule.
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Based on the shape of Mom's own Dressing Table commissioned by my Dad when they were working on their house together before they got married.
