Lara Schwimmer

Seattle Central Library, Children’s, 2004

Edition 1/10

c-print

24 x 30 inches

Ich vermisse dich. This is one of the pieces of my art collection that is still in the States and I miss it desperately. The work has a calming feeling like a warm bubble bath, vanilla and honey scented. Whenever feeling anxiety, I turned to this piece, so it was always at work hanging in front or next to me. My offices changed regularly therefore it hung on a several types of walls: green, red brick and white sterile. Living with your art collection is an important lesson to learn. When hung on the sage green wall, the piece felt strange, broken, lost. It felt warm and cozy on the red brick wall (drilling the holes into the brick was an absolute bitch). When hung in the gallery, it looked stark, architectural and lonely. It’s best home was in the sterile, insane office in NYC because it served as a shield from the negativity around me. Like Superman’s cape. Now it is in storage at my mother’s house, hanging in my old room. It looks completely ridiculous because the room is decorated with Victorian antiques - my mother is an antique collector (Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Stamm). It’s like a battle of the wills and I’m afraid the Victorian white/pink frilly explosion is too powerful for this one, lonely contemporary piece.

I love this piece because...

it’s my therapist, sheltering me from the harshness of this world.