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Kerstin Fischer (*1981) lives and works in Cologne. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf under Martin Gostner, Rita McBride and Jan Dibbets from 2000 till 2006. She became a master student of the latter in 2004.The works by Kerstin Fischer that comprise sculptures, objects and installations as well as photography, drawing and painting appear to be very lucid, light, delicate and playful but at the same time they are reduced and almost minimalist. In her approach the artist puts emphasis on a consistent reduction of the visual language to elemental forms. The aim is to provide a binding statement concerning reality – or to 'overturn' existing laws, too.
While the artist conveys the impression of a nearly scientific research among some of her works (results are written down in a portfolio), the viewer also finds a work made of three balloons or delicately colored and ephemeral watercolours elsewhere. The lucidity of the form is joined by the simplicity of the opted materials: paper, adhesive tape, fabric etc. A general theme is the development of structures, their regularity as well as the insignificant deviation from them.
The fold occurs as a special variation of this examination. It is the line in which temporal and spatial profoundness is hidden. In this context the dimension and aesthetic impact of the new wall painting by the artist is unfolded (approx. 280 x 370 cm). It was drafted with several layers of wall paint, silk and acrylic paint as well as pencil and it was specially created for the gallery space. This sophisticated and detailed work composed of painterly segments, scratching and pastel colours in contrast to black challenge the viewer's attentive perception. Like a kind of contemporary palimpsest a formation spreads across the wall, drifting from the plane of the painting background back and forth, partly breaking through the plaster and expanding into the brickwork.
The artist sets up the work in layers just to rip it open again partially. She succeeds in reaching an outermost boundary of a spatiality of the surface without getting illusionist. The eye searches the play of colours and layers of filling, of the sketched and scratched lines, tries to arrange their adjacency and overlay and does always encounter a new composition which is throughout plausible, surprising and dense.
Gabriele Wurzel