Urs Fischer's sculptures are created through an elaborate process of casting aluminum, roughly cut into wood, or melted into wax only to melt during the exhibition period. The artist revels in the possibilities of the surface, but even the works that suggest his handcrafted touch appear to have been produced through a series of digital processes in order to create the eerily surreal appearance of reality gone wrong.
Bread House (2004) it's a full-sized cabin built with loaves of bread, expandable foam, and wood. The distinctive alpine structure is set to an arrangement of oriental carpets. Over time the house decays, scattering crumbs on the floor and emitting a distinct and pervasive odor.
The sculptures Kratz and Untitled (Soft Bed), (both 2013) they signal an alternative surrealist world and seem to buckle under the pressure of an invisible force. The Kratz work, cast in aluminum but masked by a layer of camouflage paint, is made all the more believable by the pile of real concrete that has been poured over it, as if to hasten its collapse.
In Horse/Bed (2013), a horse has completely merged with a hospital bed, the various parts of which envelop the animal's head and legs. The horse stands, "wears" the bed as a harness as if nothing is wrong. Digitally combined with three-dimensional scans of a taxidermy workhorse and hospital bed, then milled from aluminum, the detail of the sculpture's remarkable materiality provides an overwhelming amount of information to the naked eye.
In the series of Phantom Paintings: Aluminum (2015), Silicone (2015), Barium (2016), Chlorine (2015), Lead & Tin (2016) and Drained (2016), the background of each painting is a photographic image of the same picture as Fischer or elements from the same collection, superimposed on silk-screened signs based on real painted or drawn gestural compositions. Like the Problem Paintings, these layered images provide a fresh and subversive vision through the clash between representational systems and different cosmic orders.
In the library are four new paintings created digitally on an iPad, representing imaginary environments, artwork in domestic environments, and surrealistic compositions. On a screen, as opposed to paper or canvas, Fischer is able to paint with light itself, shifting illuminated pixels, reflecting subtle atmospheric changes across day, night and the seasons.
Brant Foundation, Greenwich, Connecticut
brantfoundation.org
