Photo credit © Anne Djebrouni
Sarah SCHMIDT-WHITLEY
She is a visual artist and a photographer of French and German extraction living and working in Paris.
Artistic creation has been an integral part of Sarah SCHMIDT-WHITLEY’s life ever since she discovered the magic of photographic effects while developing negatives in a dark room in Austria at the age of 19. The artist works with various techniques: photography, painting, video, sculpture or immersive installations in order to create an unrealistic world, arouse emotion, develop a message and remind us that our eye is creative. She creates a third dimension in her photographs, using material such as tissue paper, Plexiglas or light to form a volume.
Her artwork centres on the process of metamorphosis and the perception of reality. She draws her inspiration from everyday life seen from the viewpoint of psychology, philosophy and neuroscience. Recently, she has become interested in developing projects for public places. Her approach follows in the lineage of artists such as Niki de Saint Phalle, David Altmejd and Jean-Michel Othoniel with whom she shares the idea that “giving poetry to life” is “a political and poetic act” which allows her to convey her humanistic vision of the world.
This luminous sculpture takes up one of the major themes of Sarah Schmidt-Whitley: the process of change. A multitude of neurons - represented here by entwined and interconnected filaments of tissue paper - symbolize the brain... This simple and ephemeral material reflects the malleability of the adult brain, which was long considered to be immutable. Photo credit © Sarah Schmidt-Whitley
from the series "Dreamlike look at the city" Parallel universes, invisible or just a difference in perception? The human being forges its own reality, by projecting what he knows, creating his own reality. What do we see? What do we imagine? These photographs are an echo of the filters that can influence our perception of reality – social, cultural, personal… - they offer us other levels of understanding and invite us to travel… Photo credit © Sarah Schmidt-Whitley
The figures symbolize both one single person with his multiple facets, and a whole in which everybody has a place. I am saying “a” place, and not “his” place because the place is not rigid, and this can be felt in this installation where the elements form equilibrium, where everything seems to be moving. This structure -midway between community and humanity- questions the very principle of humanity as well as the principle of identity of the human being. Photo credit © Sarah Schmidt-Whitley
from the series "Interior room" «The interior rooms of the soul are like the darkroom of the photographer», says Anaïs Nin. Like the private diaries of this well-known female writer, these photographs form a fresco that reveals and exposes the deeply hidden emotions of a young woman. A sort of magnifying glass gives access to her innermost self, breaking open the border between what she is willing to reveal and what she really is. Photo credit © Sarah Schmidt-Whitley
Perception and reality... Through which filters do we look at the existing world and to what degree are we responsible for the way we look at the universe around us? This volume shows us a colorful world that transmits its positive energy. It questions the way in which human beings appropriate their environment and also the nature of its interaction with their interior experience. Photo credit © Sarah Schmidt-Whitley
from the series "Interior room" «The interior rooms of the soul are like the darkroom of the photographer», says Anaïs Nin. Like the private diaries of this well-known female writer, these photographs form a fresco that reveals and exposes the deeply hidden emotions of a young woman. A sort of magnifying glass gives access to her innermost self, breaking open the border between what she is willing to reveal and what she really is. Photo credit © Sarah Schmidt-Whitley
This sculpture offers a symbolic space accessible to everybody, creating peace, in which one “is”. Such a connection may be interpreted in multiple ways: on a spiritual level it is the connection to the divine source at the origin of interior light. One can see it as an area of introspection, of self-knowledge, of an exchange of experience, of energy links... One can imagine a collective serenity, either intellectual, spiritual, energetic, emotional... Photo credit © Sarah Schmidt-Whitley
from the series "Dreamlike look at the city" Parallel universes, invisible or just a difference in perception? The human being forges its own reality, by projecting what he knows, creating his own reality. What do we see? What do we imagine? These photographs are an echo of the filters that can influence our perception of reality – social, cultural, personal… - they offer us other levels of understanding and invite us to travel… Photo credit © Sarah Schmidt-Whitley
from the series "Métamorphose (Metamorphosis)" As an echo to the allegory of Plato’s cavern, Sarah Schmidt-Whitley works on the process of transformation of human beings and the resources that are mobilized. The buildings are used as human shells in order to represent the interior metamorphosis that occurs… Here, the metamorphosis is done. The vision is free, the sky is blue, calmed. Acrylic, oil and photography on canvas / 40x20cm Photo credit © Sarah Schmidt-Whitley