La belle et la bête 2021
It was during a recent residency in Accous, in the Atlantic Pyrenees, that she met a cowherd and used cow dung as an artistic material that could speak of both transhumance and migration, while echoing the history of a region and the remains of the Roman roads that once crossed the fern. Shaping simple forms, sporadically adding pigments to obtain different shades, Barbara Schroeder offers us an ephemeral and powerful work of Land Art that she associates with the fragility of a white porcelain flower, "the material of humility" that evokes purity, but also patience. All in all, it is with an undisguised optimism that the artist produces a work that affirms her deepest respect for the agricultural world and, more broadly, the sphere of life.
Porcelain and cow dung pavement
Size of the set: 80 x 40 cm
Saprobionte 2020
The artist takes another natural phenomenon and offers a seductive and surprising vision. Starting with the mushroom and its mycelium – its often invisible and underground filaments that create a veritable neurological network of nature, also known as the Wood Wide Web – she translates, with "Saprobionte", into plastic form this indispensable interconnection, the foundation of life. Referring to plant, animal, fungal or bacterial organisms that transform decomposing organic matter, she suggests, through her paintings, drawings or installations, an inevitable renewal of our environment and an essential interdependence between the different living organisms.
In the photo, the sculpture "Saprobionte" can be seen levitating between two pillars of a 15th century priory.
Silicone structure
100 m3
Champs des Constellations 2021
The potato, an unpretentious object with no real plastic interest at first glance, becomes an object of curiosity in all its roundness. Reinvented through stagings in photography, video as well as in porcelain, object, collage, painting, her installation of 365 elements tries to reinscribe the cylce of consumming the vegetable during a calendar year. The artist allows us to glimpse the multiplicity of possible readings of his work. Thus, the potato would be the magnifying glass that draws our gaze towards the interior of the earth.
365 pieces of photos, porcelain, objects, collages, paintings
18 x 24 cm each item
Note: The text above was written by the Artist. No modification was made by COCA.
Barbara Schroeder
Germany
http://www.barbaraschroeder.com
Like an archaeologist, Barbara Schroeder explores geological layers to reveal their secrets and beauty. Her work, whether sculptural, pictorial or performative, digs into nature with an intuitive and instinctive logic, proposing poetic and aesthetic works. With her delicate and vibrant pieces, Barbara Schroeder offers the viewer a new look at the world, elevating the cycle of life and its primordial forms to the level of a work of art. Without denying her country of origin, Germany, and the lasting influence it has on her production, the french countryside becomes her favourite subject, allowing her to exercise colour and experience proliferation, which she willingly shares with the public. This dual Franco-German culture is a constant in her work; the nourishing earth, an infinite source of inspiration, allows the artist to propose a work that is both protean and poignant, giving pride of place to ancestral knowledge and crafts, while celebrating life in all its forms.