Global Considerations with Sara Schnadt
Sara Schnadt’s dynamic, wiry webs of information are created during on-site performances in which she hand threads each strand from its beginning point to its end, from one side of her world to the other. Her work is at once a celebration of the vast interchange of ideas and information across the global community, while also acting as a poignant reminder of those who are left behind.
At this month’s Talking Point, Sara discussed not only her artwork and artistic process, but also the changing frameworks within which her work has recently been considered. In particular, she talked excitedly about the experience of bringing her conceptually-global work into the physically-global arena of the 2008 Busan Biennial in South Korea. Sara’s accounts of the Biennial, including her immersion into an unfamiliar artistic community, reinvigorated the current discussion on biennials with a refreshing reminder of their great potential to inspire.
Sara also talked about the differing reactions of Eastern and Western audiences to her art. While she had become accustomed to discussing her performances in primarily conceptual terms (with Westerners), Sara found that her Eastern viewers were more interested in addressing the materiality of the structures that ensue. This shift in approach caused Sara to refocus her own conceptions of art and art-making, and is reflected in the formal concerns of her more recent work.
Questions from the audience sparked lively conversation regarding information accessibility and artistic responsibility in a rapidly globalizing world. Most interestingly, Sara’s musings ended with the realization that, although a global conversation can be enormously important, one’s art must remain rooted and inspired by a local community to ensure a continued vitality.