Stefanie Schneider - Malina (Stranger than Paradise)

Malina (Stranger than Paradise) - 1997

Edition 1/5,
44x59cm.
Analog C-Print, hand-printed and enlarged by the artist, based on the Polaroid.
Certificate and Signature label.
Artist Inventory #139.01.
Not mounted.

Taking the American West as her inspiration, Schneider’s photographic works are shot in California and utilise the characteristics inherent in Polaroid photography to create light filled images which emphasise the sun-drenched light of California and embody the cinematographic quality of the films of Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone. Although carefully staged, Schneider’s works are reminiscent of forgotten memories, dreams and chance encounters.

Schneider’s imagery typically focus on landscapes and buildings –such as Motel Signs, Palm Trees, Trailer Parks - that immediately evoke the American West and at times a retroism. Often Schneider’s imagery will feature female characters placed within these vast, sun-drenched landscapes. These female characters, often in wigs and colourful dress, evoke ideas of masquerade and play, however their intense gazes undermine their playful edge suggesting an unnerving or tragic quality beneath the surface of these glossy women. Together her photographs evoke love, pain, loneliness, alienation and rediscovery and collectively can be seen to suggest a social commentary on America; pointing to the cracks beneath the surface of the glitz and glamour of Western America and the ‘American Dream’. Schneider has commented on the relationship between her bleached out Californian dreamscapes and the disintegration of a faded Hollywood dream, “Hollywood is the quintessential dream factory, everyone goes there in search of their dreams, and many dreams are shattered there.”