Aug 26, 2022
Walking under the shade of trees, how often do you think that you are about to pass the gate, and there is no way back?
Nikon F-301, Zoom-Nikkor 35~70 AGFA Aviphot Pan 200/24
seen from Malaysia
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seen from China
seen from China
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seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
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seen from United States
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seen from China
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United States
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seen from Germany
Walking under the shade of trees, how often do you think that you are about to pass the gate, and there is no way back?
Nikon F-301, Zoom-Nikkor 35~70 AGFA Aviphot Pan 200/24
Erica Schreiner - Wistful (2020)
🎬✨ Before CGI, there was magic. From painted glass illusions to stop-motion creatures, cinema’s earliest effects weren’t just technical—they were emotional. 📽️ Dive into Part 1: Cinematic Special Effects (1890s–1960s) and explore how filmmakers turned shadows, miniatures, and matte paintings into storytelling grammar. 🔗 Explore the timeline, watch rare videos, and discover the emotional architecture behind the illusion.
December 3, 2022
Mono No Aware Festival of Cinema Arts XVI
718 Studios - Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY
December 2, 2022
Mono No Aware Festival of Cinema Arts XVI
718 Studios - Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY
Erica Schreiner is a video and performance artist living and working in NYC...
\ˈviz üəl\
ERICA SCHREINER: VIDEO NECTAR
Erica Lindsay Victoria Suzanne Schreiner. A mouthful—and through her experimental video and performance art, Erica conveys such—literally. Through her work, she unabashedly fuses herself with the viewer leading to an immersion that is both vulnerable and intimate. Using live specimens of the varietal kind, Erica explores the liminal zone between inner child and outer adult. It is here that the fence between creation and destruction is walked, toyed, and ultimately folded.
Walk us through a typical, yet intimate day in your life.
One of the best things about living in New York is that my days aren’t always typical. I thrive on stimuli and change and New York is perfect for that.
Some things are consistent. I wake up, feed the cat, make coffee. If I’m lucky, I’ll make it to yoga, a movie, go to a gallery, flip through art magazines. The truth is, I’m running in all directions trying to complete projects, eat, take vitamins, send emails, make art. I always stay up too late and wake up much too early, even on weekends. I try to spend the majority of all days thinking about ideas, or manifesting those ideas, even if it’s when I’m making coffee. The coffee and I will be talking about what to shoot next.
I don’t want to, but I have to mention work. Day jobs. Most artists have them. I have them. They don’t define me and often do not interest me. This is part of being an artist. It’s heartbreaking to waste so much time working to make money in order to make your own art.
What inspires the art that you create?
Certain unfulfilled unemotional needs. All sort of things. I’ll find inspiration in other works of art, or people, wind in the trees… but mostly I create without inspiration because inspiration is illusive, divine. I try to induce it, but it’s mostly work and practice, and rarely the magic of inspiration. If I had one wish, it would be to always wake up inspired.
What is your earliest memory that propelled you to create?
I remember so vividly when I was 4 or 5 years old standing before this easel and painting. I wore a smock and my mom insisted on mixing the colors for me. When I saw the combination of the white paint mixing into the red to make pink, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Two completely different colors mixed together could make a third color! At that age, I didn’t know what propelled me to create, I just knew I was an artist and I needed to create.
Tell us a little bit about your creative process.
Chris helps me a lot. He’s my boyfriend of 4 or 5 years, so he really understands my creative process and creative goals. Whenever I have an idea, it is never left alone. We take a base idea and develop it, painstakingly so. Chris asks questions that at the time feel like such a hassle. Why do you want to create this? What is it saying? What does it mean to you? We’ll strip away everything about the idea to the bare message and then rebuild it, based around some need, a need that drives you. This can be why you choose to stay alive, why you didn’t kill yourself when you wanted to most. It is different for everyone, but you have to find it for yourself. I thought my need was something different for a while, but after you really chip away at the surface and ask the difficult questions, you can discover it. My art is now centered around this. And when you discover what it is for you, it’s best to keep it sacred and to yourself. It’s all so fragile. You don’t want anything mutating your driving force.
In what ways do you feel video differs from other mediums of art?
Video is alive. Video moves. Video can capture multiple angles at once. Video is new in the history of art. Video is human and technological at once.
When you look at a photograph or a still image, you are looking at something that was captured in the past. Because of the still nature of this image, you think about and are reminded of the past, the moment the image was captured. With video, it’s moving. You can’t view something that’s in motion in the past. Video is a thing of the present.
Tell me about your experience with Marina Abramović.
Daily we spent 5 hours at MoMA PS1 with Marina and her assistants. Each day began with exercises from The Abramović Method. We practiced being fully present while remaining still or walking in slow motion. We made loud, strange, extended sounds. We spent a great deal of time looking at the other artists directly in the eyes without motion. During this time, myself and the other artists from completely different backgrounds, connected with one another. Having the opportunity to connect with other artists, sympathetically and without judgment, was my favorite part of this experience.
In addition, we each conceptualized individual performances to have presented to the public. Marina gave us feedback on our ideas. This workshop was not about us performing Marina’s work, but Marina helping us with our work.
Of course the experience was really intimidating at times. Marina is such a celebrity. I found myself shaking when I went to speak. What I learned from Marina were none of the things I expected to learn from her.
For the final performance, the audience participated in an exercise from The Abramović Method. Once it was time for us to perform, the audience was receptive and appreciative, full of curiosity and love. There is something so magic about standing in front of an audience and looking them directly in the eyes.
How do you wish for your art to transform the world?
Probably the thing I would like to see most is people believing that they can make art no matter what their circumstances. I don’t believe art should be something for only the privileged. I’m not that interested in work that comes from privilege and I don’t desire that kind of life. I’m interested in people with real experiences, expressing themselves with what they have, because they’ll die if don’t. So, if I could transform the world, I would inspire everyone who wants to create, to actualize their dreams.
Do you feel people are born creative or is it learned?
Creativity is everywhere, not just in art, but science, medicine, mathematics, sports.
Everyone is born creative. Look at children. Life beats it out of us and we have to re-learn it. Part of practicing art is reminding yourself of how to be a kid again. The way that grown-ups play can be so destructive and depressing. I’m looking to find that pure place that is honest, where you can express freely and find something true.
Is there such a thing as talent? I believe talent is just desire and practice.
Do you feel that there are limitations to what you want to create?
Limitations to what I want to create or what I can create? There are limitations in that I can only express from my personal experience, however, I still try to find that which is universal about my experience and express it.
Limitations to what I can create – sure. If I had real money, I could fill a field with white cats and zebras covered in crystals, and nude opera singers, singing, and hundreds of children painted gold, carrying platters of wedding cakes. It could rain gumdrops. Or rattlesnakes. I could fill the air with butterflies and have a lake of strawberry milk. I could collaborate with my favorite artists. Anything.
What is your personal/artistic stance on technology in general. How it pertains to art?
Technology is great. With video, it’s really exciting because it is so affordable that everyone can own a video camera, so anyone can make movies. I would love to see more people take advantage of this and create serious videos using cell phone video cameras. I love cheap technology and vintage technology. I don’t really like the look of high definition video, but I’m sure it will continue to improve and then I’ll get into it.
Do you feel art is vital to survival and if so, why?
It’s vital to my survival. What does vital mean? It’s interesting how everyone creates no matter when and where… there are always traces of art. Makes me think of the film by Werner Herzog, Cave of Forgotten Dreams.
Tell us a secret, and obsession.
A secret: Since 2002, I’ve been keeping a detailed record of all events and details of my life.
An obsession: Movies. I also keep a list of all the films I watch, but that only goes back to 2007.
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