Donna Schumacher has exhibited her art locally, including public art works such as Re-Tale in Union Square funded by San Francisco Art Commission Cultural Equity Grant. Her art works have been displayed internationally with the Royal Institute of British Architects in London and in Christchurch, New Zealand.
a caryatid
For Schumacher’s first solo show at alternative gallery, the LAB in San Francisco, was an installation, A Caryatid, based on the figures of women displayed on the Erechthion at the Acropolis.
A series of four simultaneous slide projections of the same woman (Schumacher), were each taken by a different photographer to show the subjective influence of the viewer in the creation of female identity. Hidden in the truss suspended from the ceiling, side projectors flashed the four series of images toward four mirrors (representing the interpretation of the “other”), each creating a different image of the same self.
A Caryatid was shown in Desiring Practices, a show organized by the Royal British Academy of Architects in London. The artist book, Architecture, the Ideal and Marilyn Monroe: Towards a feminine aesthetic in architectureaccompanied the installation.
homes of an-other
Schumacher was commissioned to create a piece for the Exploration: City Sites lot adjoining the San Francisco Art Commission Gallery. Her work, Homes of An-Other explored the creation of a contemporary sense of home befitting the age of electronic communication. Eric Fromm (1985) described the current era as the age of “other direction” in which portable communities are based on mutual interests and past experience, communities which move as we move. Three transmission towers (donated by the fabricators of the true towers created for PG&E) spanned the space of the empty city lot. The towers diminished in size as they moved back in the space to create a forced perspective. Each tower displays the footage of one sibling: a similarity of facial expression, mannerism and lifestyle represent the connection of commonality beyond georgraphy.
The piece was later shown at Works/San Jose within residential furniture groupings to allow for a more intimate and contemplative viewing of the videos. Comfortable chairs were set across from each monitor as if visiting.
teaching stones
The Teaching Stones Memorial commemorates the life of Doris Dillon, beloved teacher and community member. It is located adjacent to the Almaden Community Center and Library.
Doris Dillon was known for her generous spirit and her passion for teaching. She engaged her students through games, and it was often said that she could “teach a rock to read.”
Eight stones are arranged in a cluster. Each is inscribed with a ribbon containing words from one of the eight parts of speech. The words chosen are collected directly from Doris’s history and as such, they echo her life. This is illustrated in the ribbon from the noun stone.
The memorial serves as a learning tool for future generations. Rubbings are done on the stones with pencil and paper. Students move from stone to stone, gathering a noun from one, a verb from another, and onward until a full sentence is collected. The Teaching Stones Memorial is also used as a reading area, a place to daydream, or as a favorite spot to wait for parents. The work honors Doris’s legacy of mixing learning with pleasure in the form of a gift to the community she loved so well.
narthex
Re-tale
Funded by the San Francisco Cultural Equity Grant, Schumacher created Re-Tale: the Lives and Experiences of Union Square Retail Workers with collaborative team Britta Kathmeyer and Ella Delaney. Re-Tale was a temporary art installation which attracted the public with its promise of a high backed chair for relaxing. Fabricated in brushed stainless steel, the piece echoes the type of park benches typical of the square, and yet remained distinctive enough to around curiosity. Once approached, the proximity activated sound sculpture relayed (via hidden speaker) a twenty minute sound piece incorporating nine interviews with local retail workers that had jobs within the famous retail square of San Francisco.
As the architect and lead artist of the collaboration, Schumacher was responsible for the fabrication and design of the chair itself including the technology, as well as the permits and permissions required for its placement. The chair could not harm the square in any permanent way. As such, it was designed to slip over the existing planter wall and be held in place by gravity alone.