Sean Schumacher (b. 1986) explores the unnoticed and the forgotten of everyday history—the mundane or even accidental non-events of timelines that get recorded often in spite of their creators. His futile gestures, from fragilely outlining the walls of forgotten homes to capturing the dialogue created when hairs become trapped in wall paint, honor lost and lossy moments. A native of Las Vegas, his most recent work explores and historicizes the uniquely thorough de-historicization of his own home town, locating what can be saved to tell the story of that city's natives when the industry that provides for them also displaces the components of their identity.
Sean Schumacher (b. 1986) retells stories through breadcrumbs, trailing hints about an ignored or forgotten past, the whispered half-truths of secrets and rumors, or fleeting narratives told through equally temporary means. Through copious research, unusual applications of everyday technologies, and added humor, he provides viewers a sense of the moments, places, and narratives that have been lost, or are simply going unnoticed around them.
Having grown up in Las Vegas before relocating to pursue a graduate degree, Schumacher’s most recent work explores these themes through his unique hometown—a place with a short history unpreserved, a built landscape repeatedly razed, and a population that has consisted for most of its history of long-term tourists shifting ever-further from any area with the slightest hint of age. Seeking an understanding of the city’s urban fabric as a whole through an investigation of maps, property surveys, and place names left displaced by the implosion of casinos and the abandonment of neighborhoods, he seeks an understanding of what being a local means when the person and the place are altered by distance and destruction, and what damage the ideals of the twentieth century’s disdain for the past had on its disposable locality.
Sean Schumacher, a native Nevadan and graduate of the University of Nevada Las Vegas (BFA 2009), is currently in Oregon completing a Masters of Fine Art degree in Contemporary Art Practice at Portland State University (expected Spring 2012).