WASTE SCENES
Maia Chao & Fred Schmidt-Arenales
About The Exhibition
Waste Scenes is a two channel video installation created while in residence at RAIR (Recycled Artist in Residency) in Philadelphia, which is situated in an operating construction and demolition recycling facility. The work juxtaposes original footage of performances based on found texts, observational footage shot at the dump, and digitized found media sourced from the waste stream (including books, VHS tapes, Audio Cassettes, Vinyl, and Super 8 film). Composed from the material and ideological detritus of the post-industrial northern U.S., the film reckons with failed neoliberal visions of the good life set against the waste it has produced.
About The Artist
Maia Chao is an interdisciplinary artist who works collaboratively in performance, video, and social practice. She is co-creator of the social practice project, Look at Art. Get Paid. Chao has received commissions from The Shed, MoMA Education, SMFA Tufts University Galleries, and The New School. She has completed residencies at Pioneer Works and the Fine Arts Work Center, among others. She was named a 2022-23 Pew Fellow and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2023. In 2024, she will be Public Artist in Residence at Times Square Arts and developing a commission for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s 50th Anniversary. She is a member of the Philadelphia art collective and DIY space, Vox Populi, and teaches at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).
Fred Schmidt-Arenales is an artist and filmmaker. His projects attempt to bring awareness to unconscious processes on the individual and group level. He has presented films, installations, and performances internationally at venues including SculptureCenter and Abrons Arts Center, (New York), Links Hall (Chicago), The Darling Foundry (Montreal), LightBox and The Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia), Artspace (New Haven), The Museum of Fine Arts and FotoFest (Houston), Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst und Medien (Graz), and Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna). His recent film Committee of Six was an official selection of the 2022-23 Architecture and Design Film Festival and was awarded a Jury Prize for Best of the Festival at the 2023 Onion City Experimental Film Festival. His first solo museum show is scheduled at Storefront for Art and Architecture in 2024.
