Whatnot – Louise Schmid

This project started at Metropolitan Fukujusou, an Artists’ Residency in Kyoto, in 2024. There has been a longstanding fascination with toys, miniaturisation, automatons and play as precursor to art.

Dislocation from everyday life in the UK, and dis-orient-ation, intensified my perception of local toys, games, charms, replicas, childish things and the culture of childhood. Shedding a curious look at how Japan has shaped the post-World War II world, from toy pop- culture creations, from the techy to the super-kawaii. Japan’s toys, gadgets and fantasy worlds, profoundly transform every aspect of the way we live. Such toys transform how we connect, as well as isolate ourselves, opening pathways to social change. From a surrealist perspective on chance and indeterminacy, toys are bound up with judgment of value (i.e., not worth much). I have been revisiting modern and contemporary art, through the lens of its engagement with the way childhood has been understood and construed. How has a toy been adapted to new social/aesthetic circumstances? Revision of childhood emerges as a timely subject, the political dimension of play – things have significance beyond the intrapersonal. Marketing of stereotypes and fantasies, present as an endless stream of fun.

Sustainable media and aesthetics

I have expanded my artwork in terms of content, and more sustainable materials, i.e. Sumi pigments on paper. My drawings and transformed boardgames – as non- industrial media and timeless visual communication – act as a manifestation complementary to the ever faster renewal of mass messages. Working with the most direct and elementary materials, aids reducing artwork to its essentials and transcending technical constraints. My new drawings aspire to the condition of music, not in wishing to be relieved of the burden of reference, but in wishing to employ subtle allusions, rather than spelled out certainties. They celebrate hybridity and cultural collisions. My aesthetic communication is deliberately ambiguous to foster the use of different interpretative codes, by those who from diverse cultural backgrounds, will encounter the work. What constitutes a ‘toy’, what is a ‘work of art’?

Artist biography

Louise Schmid is a Glasgow based visual artist, with a special interest in drawing and work on paper. Currently working at Wasps South Block Studios. Most recent solo exhibitions held at Nomas* Projects Dundee, Monade Contemporary Kyoto, Galerie Rosenberg, Zurich and 201 Gallery in Strathkinness. Louise Schmid’s visual motifs evolved, especially in response to working as an artist in residence, in diverse locations, such as Metropolitan Fukujusou in Kyoto 2024, and Cité internationale des Arts Paris 2022.