RED STRUCTURED LANDCAPE 2 (1997) Photographie par Aurore Millet

Sleepless in New York
Aurore Millet's Work in the Schneider Gallery

Although it may appear paradoxical that an artist named Aurore does much of her work at night, there is a reason for her nocturnal activity: this is when she can best take advantage of the technically highly-specialised laboratory in New York and proceed with her work on her pictures. Her work-place is the computer screen, where the young artist can see what she has produced so far. Parts of coloured landscapes painted out not on paper but on industrial tape are transferred via colour slide to the computer where they are enlarged and revised.

Whilst the original unity diisolves on the screen, the process of dissolution is arrested and captured. A new artistic essence is filtered out. Large new compositions or miniature cut-outs which illustrate the artistic procedure are the results of this stage in the process which is, in all its lengthiness, part of the overall work of art. The mirror effect reflected in the plexiglass is also integrated into the now finished work of art: a symphony of tones in red and ocre almost all of which are titled "Red Structured Landscapes" with additional comments such as "curriculum vitae", "biography" or "metamorphosis". This series of works produced between 1996 - 1998 can now be seen in Michael Schneider's gallery in Bonn.

The genesis of Aurore Reinicke's work can be read as a "work in progress". The artist, born in Flers, France in 1960 and a graduate of photography and art studies, discovered an affinity for transparent materials and, in particular, industrial tapes used in aerospace industry to prevent corrosion on aircraft wing: a light ocre and pulsating red acrylic paint is applied to rectangular segments of this tape. The results are open to a wide range of associations: poppy petals floating away from their stems on the wind, blood stains, human skeletons. The second step is a colour slide photograph of the painted tape which is subsequently retouched and revised on the computer screen where special effects are achieved through the use of light. The colour principle, the flow of red paint and the form principle embodied in the use of ocre to structure the paintings are thus given a readable biography on the personal computer.