About the exhibition

For her exhibition at Papakura Art Gallery Lena Schmid-Tupou investigates a world heritage site near her hometown in southern Germany. About ten years ago Archaeologists have discovered sculptures made out of mammoth ivory and dated back to the ice age. The sculptures were found in caves close to the area where Schmid-Tupou`s ancestors lived in for centuries. Schmid-Tupou felt confident to work around the subject matter of landscape as it is the interface between her and these sculptures. It is magical to her that she shares the same heritage as the oldest ever found sculptures in the world.

She started to explore forms and shapes of the area where the discoveries were made. Soon she came to the conclusion that for this series, she wanted to create for the show, she needed to work around the landscape she grew up in and the landscapes she had been living and visiting throughout her life. It was about the landscapes she had seen that shaped her into the woman she is today. 

In the show we will find works that might remind us of places we feel we have already seen. But Schmid-Tupou does not paint one particular image of a mountain or a river, her paintings are more like the sound of a mountain or a riverbank. We start dreaming into a world we think we know but there is no real equivalent. It just gives us the feeling we have been there already.