Nomas* Projects / Art, Dundee

Merry Go Round

Merry Go Round has been curated for Nomas* Projects' five-window gallery, to be on display from the bleakest part of winter until early spring 2026. At that time of year, audiences may be looking in opposite directions, reviewing 2025 and anticipating the year ahead. Pedestrians may become sensitised to small signs of extended daylight, with time to pause. The borders of what constitutes a 'toy' and what is a 'work of art' will be defined by people passing by, encountering the work.

I will use Nomas* Projects' windows like a triptych that is divided into three main sections. Originating from early Christian art, it features a larger central window flanked by two smaller side windows, contributing to a single, overarching theme.

The larger, panoramic centrepiece is titled "wind-up toys."

This centrepiece is flanked by "review" and "1st toy."

I have a longstanding fascination with toys, miniaturisation, automatons and play as precursor to art. This project started at Metropolitan Fukujusou, an Artists' Residency in Kyoto, in 2024. Dislocation from everyday life in the UK, and disorientation, intensified my perception of local toys, games, charms, replicas, childish things and the culture of childhood. Shedding a curious look at how Japan has shaped the post-World War II world, from toy pop-culture creations, from the techy to the super-kawaii. Japan's toys, gadgets and fantasy worlds profoundly transform every aspect of the way we live. Such toys transform how we connect, as well as isolate ourselves, opening pathways to social change. From a surrealist perspective on chance and indeterminacy, toys are bound up with judgment of value (i.e., not worth much). I have been re-reading modern and contemporary art through the lens of its engagement with the way childhood has been understood and construed. How has a toy been adapted to new social/aesthetic circumstances? Revision of childhood emerges as a timely subject—the political dimension of play means things have significance beyond the intrapersonal. Marketing of stereotypes and fantasies in a capitalist landscape presents as an endless stream of fun.

Sustainable Media and Aesthetics

I have expanded my artwork in terms of content and more sustainable materials, i.e., Sumi watercolour on paper. In Dundee, I plan to look out for objects trouvés. My drawings, paper cuts and installations, as non-industrial media and timeless visual communication, act as a manifestation complementary to the ever faster renewal of mass messages. Working with the most direct and elementary materials aids reducing artwork to its essentials and transcending technical constraints. My new drawings aspire to the condition of music, not in wishing to be relieved of the burden of reference, but in wishing to employ subtle allusions rather than spelled-out certainties. They celebrate hybridity and cultural collisions. My aesthetic communication is deliberately ambiguous to foster the use of different interpretative codes by those who, from diverse cultural backgrounds, will encounter the work.

Artist's Bio

I am a Glasgow-based visual artist, with a special interest in drawing and work on paper. Previous exhibitions in Dundee: Meadowmill project space in 2022, and Generator Project in 2003. Most recent solo exhibitions held at Monade Contemporary Kyoto, Galerie Rosenberg, Zurich and 201 Gallery in Strathkinness. My visual motifs evolved, especially in response to working as an artist in residence, in diverse locations, such as Metropolitan Fukujusou in Kyoto 2024, and Cité internationale des Arts Paris 2022.

Artist's Website ouiseschmid.net instagram.com/louiseschmid Galerie Rosenberg