INTERVIEW WITH SARAH SCHODERER ON HER WORK AND LIFE AS AN ARTIST

Sarah Schoderer,  KUTEVEVA-Blurred perspectives

Name:    Sarah Schoderer

City/Country:   Frankfurt, Germany

  • Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?

I have studied fine art at the art academy of Frankfurt (Städelschule) and Mainz, Germany. I am a painter and sculptor. My main emphasize is to reflect on our society today through painting and sculpting. I often compare my still life with those of the Barock time.  The Barock painter chose significant objects of his time and so do I. My paintings often reflect on art history in general.

How did the ideal of beauty develop? I work mostly in series; one series was about mundane daily objects which I painted almost in an abstract way. I was very much influenced by the pop art but I wanted to reflect in a dialectical way on our commercialized society. I used the idea of painting as a medium which gives value to the painted objects in a dialectical way to the very banal objects.

Since 2012 I have been focusing on how the idea of beauty developed and how art historically might have influenced how we look at beauty.

Here in Kenya I was very much impressed on the contrasts that I saw here, contrasts between poor and rich, modernity and tradition, etc… The works I have done here reflect in a very personal way on this impressions.

  • How did you decide to become an artist?
    I was raised in a family where everyone was into art. My father used to write poems, my mother painted and later, my step father is became a violin and piano teacher. Art was the only thing which really fascinated me, I cannot think of myself doing anything apart from art.
  • What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
    I don´t remember, because I have spoken to so many incredible clever people, every person, doesn’t matter if they´re artists or not, have influenced me in their own way…..
  • Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself?
    I don´t have any answers to this…..I don´t know…..!
  • Who are some of the Nairobi/ Kenyan artists you enjoy?
    I am very new to the art scene here, so I was mostly inspired by the artists that I met at Kuona Trust. I enjoyed all of them, each in a different way…
  • If I were to follow you around to see art in Nairobi, which places would we go? What would we see?
    Kuona Trust, the Go-Down, Goethe Institute – Nairobi National Museum. Alliance Francaise
  • In addition to www.kuonatrust.org, where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise?
    I check out galleries and museums all over the world. There is no limit!! I think the Dokumenta in Kassel/ Germany as well as the Venice Biennial are some of the most important exhibitions of contemporary art.  MOMA PS1 in New York, etc….
  • Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future?
    Tomorrow.  My Exhibition “KUTEVEVA-Blurred perspectives” is currently on going at the Kuona Trust gallery till the 1st of October.

Open night for the exhibition Kuteveva in the Kuona Trust gallery

  • What can we expect to see from you in the future?
    Hopefully good art!!!
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