Andreas Fischer
10 Jun - 30 Jul 2011
ANDREAS FISCHER
Westblindung
10 June - 30 July, 2011
Galerie Reinhard Hauff is pleased to announce its first solo show with Düsseldorf artist Andreas Fischer (*1972). Andreas Fischer develops kinetic sculpture machines put together from commonplace objects. A kinetic sculpture is by definition, a piece of art that moves by an engine or via electronically controlled processes. Engines, wheels, axles, and shifting systems make his machines shake, rattle, rotate and vibrate. The charm of his art works originates in his „childhood fascination with handicrafts and mechanics“ (Regina Barunke), in their very elementary scantiness and absurdly functionless construction. The incongruous, subversive audio and visual puns which characterize his artworks, are enhanced by work titles which play on words and meanings in a humorous and intelligent way (for example „Steam Stopper Claudia“, „Monday Demo“ or „Notzuckerl“), and their laconic texts, intoned from stuttering, old-fashioned, distant radio station speaker soundtracks. In constant repetition, sound bits of words and fractions of phrases and audio noise accompany the hectic mechanical actions and absurd events set in motion by Andreas Fischer’s sculptures, which take on an uncontrollable surreal life of their own. Devoid of any product oriented ambition, the constructs of the student of the master class of Georg Herold from the Düsseldorf Art Academy appear „somehow silly or wacky ‘“ and slapstick comical. Like, for instance, when a tuft of hair swings back and forth over an empty bed frame to the sound of a popular sailor’s song („Kaiman Krücke“, 2011), or when the voice of the artist incessantly repeats sounds intoned in an irritated note from the depths of a copper tube attached to a speaker-like construction: „es wird besser ... es wird nicht besser, es wird einfach nicht besser, wird‘s bald besser? Besser wird‘s nicht“ (which translates into „it’s going to be better, it’s not going to be better, it simply doesn’t get better, will it soon get better?) in the 2011 piece „wirds bald“.
In „Westblindung“ Andreas Fischer transforms the exhibition rooms into a parcours, in which a representative selection of Fischer’s works from the last couple of years are installed .The unspectacular and accidental which characterize his works throughout – the „intentional laconic“—becomes thereby as clear as the reflection which his works formulate on the question of purpose and mastery of technique. Between the built-in styro foam walls the visitor comes upon a sculpture constructed from the leftovers of a chest of drawers, where doors swing open and closed while a voice to the rhythm of neon blinking tubes sings a melancholic-resigned song about the end of a love story („Lohn“, 2010). Then meets a discarded chair, which tips backwards and forwards while from the speaker placed on the armrests of the chair you hear the artist sing a parody on the famous religious song „Maria spread your protective cloak over me“. The obsessively rocking movement of the chair combined with the mawkishly performed song makes it obvious how closely the concepts of success and failure are interrelated in the witty work of Andreas Fischer.
The Galerie Reinhard Hauff wishes to thank the artist and the Galerie Vera Gliem, Cologne, for their collaboration, goodwill and support in presenting this exhibition.
Westblindung
10 June - 30 July, 2011
Galerie Reinhard Hauff is pleased to announce its first solo show with Düsseldorf artist Andreas Fischer (*1972). Andreas Fischer develops kinetic sculpture machines put together from commonplace objects. A kinetic sculpture is by definition, a piece of art that moves by an engine or via electronically controlled processes. Engines, wheels, axles, and shifting systems make his machines shake, rattle, rotate and vibrate. The charm of his art works originates in his „childhood fascination with handicrafts and mechanics“ (Regina Barunke), in their very elementary scantiness and absurdly functionless construction. The incongruous, subversive audio and visual puns which characterize his artworks, are enhanced by work titles which play on words and meanings in a humorous and intelligent way (for example „Steam Stopper Claudia“, „Monday Demo“ or „Notzuckerl“), and their laconic texts, intoned from stuttering, old-fashioned, distant radio station speaker soundtracks. In constant repetition, sound bits of words and fractions of phrases and audio noise accompany the hectic mechanical actions and absurd events set in motion by Andreas Fischer’s sculptures, which take on an uncontrollable surreal life of their own. Devoid of any product oriented ambition, the constructs of the student of the master class of Georg Herold from the Düsseldorf Art Academy appear „somehow silly or wacky ‘“ and slapstick comical. Like, for instance, when a tuft of hair swings back and forth over an empty bed frame to the sound of a popular sailor’s song („Kaiman Krücke“, 2011), or when the voice of the artist incessantly repeats sounds intoned in an irritated note from the depths of a copper tube attached to a speaker-like construction: „es wird besser ... es wird nicht besser, es wird einfach nicht besser, wird‘s bald besser? Besser wird‘s nicht“ (which translates into „it’s going to be better, it’s not going to be better, it simply doesn’t get better, will it soon get better?) in the 2011 piece „wirds bald“.
In „Westblindung“ Andreas Fischer transforms the exhibition rooms into a parcours, in which a representative selection of Fischer’s works from the last couple of years are installed .The unspectacular and accidental which characterize his works throughout – the „intentional laconic“—becomes thereby as clear as the reflection which his works formulate on the question of purpose and mastery of technique. Between the built-in styro foam walls the visitor comes upon a sculpture constructed from the leftovers of a chest of drawers, where doors swing open and closed while a voice to the rhythm of neon blinking tubes sings a melancholic-resigned song about the end of a love story („Lohn“, 2010). Then meets a discarded chair, which tips backwards and forwards while from the speaker placed on the armrests of the chair you hear the artist sing a parody on the famous religious song „Maria spread your protective cloak over me“. The obsessively rocking movement of the chair combined with the mawkishly performed song makes it obvious how closely the concepts of success and failure are interrelated in the witty work of Andreas Fischer.
The Galerie Reinhard Hauff wishes to thank the artist and the Galerie Vera Gliem, Cologne, for their collaboration, goodwill and support in presenting this exhibition.