John Schneider
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John Schneider STATEMENT By collaging, drawing, and printmaking, I deconstruct the superEgo narrative, inherent and latent in the superman/superhero comic genre. I propose a renovated psychohistorical addendum to Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual libido theory. A questioning of the whole history of mankind including pre-written times focusing on the history and interactions between the individual and their respective groupmind as well as groupmind/groupmind dynamics. I utilize the superman comic, censored envelopes, and groupmind-issued stamps by deconstructing the inherent/latent superego ideals, the groupmind dominance and censorship dynamics, and the historical ideals conveyed by the groupmind. All three printed mediums persuade and force the individual to put their groupmind’s superego/monotheist ideals ahead of their own individual needs. By expanding on the black/white nature of etching, I motivate dynamic addition to this via chine colle. Also the vehicle of printmaking and its ability to reach large audiences, as well as its foundings by Johann Gutenberg, all add to the enclosed static reinforcement of superego morality and monotheist hegemony. Therefore, I renovate Freud’s libido theory (stages of psycal development of the individual, i.e. pre-oedipal, oedipal, latent-oedipal and mature) to analyze the history of groups. (So hunters and gathers/pre-oedipal, Greeks and Romans/oedipal, jews, christians, and muslims/latent-oedipal.) The latter plays the biggest part because when the monotheist religions were formed, they had an asexual/abstract godlike figure to worship, which was the latent archetype for the superhero/ superego, simply an constructed idealized version of man that always did what was right which was what was needed in the waning times of religions stronghold on society and with Frederick Nietzeche’s proposal that god was dead, in fact he never was alive but merely a projection of our own superego transferred outside the body. BIO John Schneider holds a BA in Psychology and a BFA from the University of Missouri, Columbia. His work has been exhibited widely in solo and group shows in the U.S., China, Japan, France, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. Since 2010, Schneider has won several awards for his work at shows in and around Columbia, Missouri, where he lives and works. His work is in many private collections, as well as the collections of State Historical Society of Missouri, the China Printmaking Museum, and the Tymutopiyapres Gallery in Lviv, Ukraine. ARTIST CONTACT (573) 228-1058 IMAGES
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