Untitled [Abstract Metal Rods]

A painted steel structure. Straight, narrow bars rise out of the ground and converge into a dense mass of cut plates, slivers, and crumpled sheets, all of steel. Similar bars then shoot out of the top of the chaotic fray. Though this piece is non-representational (at least not implicitly so), there are a number of images that this piece calls to mind. The solid, straight offshoots entering and leaving the center mass are reminiscent of a prism refracting light, though in this case neither the "prism" nor the "beams" are clean nor precise. The other image that comes to mind is that of a campfire. The legs act as the tipi-stacked logs, with the "fire" in the center dancing and flickering about. Then the smoke is formed with the beams coming from the top.

Despite being both non-representational and non-geometric, this piece feels remarkably out of place within Schmidt's body of work. There are no familiar curves or harmonious forms. Instead, this precariously balanced, vertically-structured sculpture plays with a darker, more twisted side of abstraction.