The Rats, The Maggots, The Cigarette Butts: Aurel Schmidt's Death and Decay

"Supernatural", 2006

Reasons why I adore Aurel Schmidt like she is my abducted twin sister:
1. She has reconciled with her paranoia.
2. She's obsessive.
3. She didn't go to "Art School".
4. She has an extreme attachment to objects, such as a necklace her friend made her.
5. She creates an entire universe in her work.

The most unfortunate aspect of viewing Aurel's art via the internet is the sense of being cheated out of the full scale and vision that is apparent when the image is seen in the way it was intended. Specifically in regards to the above image which can been seen here , the difference is incredible...the lush texture of the fern-hair coinciding with burrowing maggots, the multitude of serpents inside the form with no visible heads, and the negative space behind the spider webs make me want fall into it's embrace and be consumed. Aurel, in essence, gives the viewer the reality of our own eventual consumption by nature and in the words sung by us all in seventh grade, "Life feeds on life feeds on life feeds oN LIFE FEEDS ON LIFE..."

"Medusa", 2006

Aurel has been quoted as saying, "it is important to me to be constantly aware of the real horror in this world" which, on a personal level, is something very near and dear to me. It's a concept that most avoid, ignore, or attempt to conceal through our consumerism, our gluttony, and our apathy. However, what is appealing to me is the callousness of nature and the sheer force of its' power that continues to crush humanity with emotionless death and destruction. The drawings seem to be a steady hum of nature's consumption; a still from time-lapse videos of food rotting, people decaying, or seedlings emerging from the soil. Above all, the pieces articulate her obsession and compulsion to create these detailed works that seem to animate as if we were wearing the 3-D glasses from "Freddy's Dead".

"Better Luck Next Time", 2006

One of her latest exhibitions entitled, "Burnouts" features thirteen drawings using cigarette burns, noses drawn out of Band-Aids and blood, old beer cans, and condoms in order to create macabre Smiley Faces. When I first viewed these pieces there was a simplicity that hadn't been shown in her previous work, and since Aurel appears to be greatly influenced by her surroundings it is of no surprise that a critique on hipsters would manifest itself. Now being that I am not the "artiste" I don't claim that this is the intention of the exhibition, however the pieces do seem to represent the vapid, mask-like faces of the urban narcissists swilling PBR specials and discarding their HPV-filled rubbers out of Williamsburg windows.

Photo Courtesy of Paper Magazine, 2009

"I moved here and I was extremely lonely and paranoid." While Aurel may appear to be some sort of a zonkey centerfold, particularly in Terry Richardson's "Purple Magazine" spread of her faux urinating with a PBR can and draped in derivative cigarette necklaces, she has continued to document the world emulating itself only to cycle towards rebirth without the tackiness of celebrity or the fleeting nature of popularity. The video linked above is perhaps the most gorgeous work since it is of herself, and I can't help but share her paranoia of consumption and the terrifying nature of the world if only to know that by purging those racing thoughts and images and by opening all the boxes do we truly come to terms with our own imminent extinction.

If you fall in love with Aurel and you aren't living on the coasts to see her art in person you can snatch up her first book on Amazon.com entitled, "Man Eater".