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Urs Fischer: The Surreal Becomes Personal
For real estate brokers, it’s all about “location, location, location,” for artists, it’s all about the art. In downtown New York City, the New Museum is the prime example of this artistic reality. While the interjection of this cultural institution has sparked political and economic controversy, the current artwork within this museum escapes these social tensions. One visit to see Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty and the complexities of the outside world are lost. Visceral, emotional, and playful, Urs Fisher’s installations dominate all three floors of the museum and draw visitors into his imaginary world.
Starting from the fifth floor, the visitor is confronted with five enormous aluminum sculptures that create a surreal, unfamiliar atmosphere, but remain surprisingly naturalistic, approachable, and inviting objects. Each imposing, massive metallic piece appears to defy gravity and is hung in such a manner as to appear floating in space. However, despite the obscurity of these huge, formless structures, their presence does not provoke a sense of confusion or alienation. Rather, the viewer is a participant in this other world. These cocoon-like shapes render a natural, approachable environment, as the viewer can walk around these organic forms and feel subsumed into Ficsher’s abstract, but captivating space.
After a stroll down to the third floor, Ficsher’s surreal domain transgresses from captivating to playful. At first glance, this room is grey and drab, with only a small sculpture in the middle of the overcrowded room. Yet, with a more thorough exploration, the visitor will find this floor houses two provoking pieces. Venture to the corner of the room and you will be mocked! As tons of museum goers cluster around an empty portion of the floor space, once you step over a subtly defined black line, a plastic tongue quickly protrudes from the wall and teases your own sense of intrigue. Turn around, and your intuition will once again be challenged. Positioned in the middle of this space is a neon purple plastic piano that appears to be ferociously melting from some invisible, unperceivable physical force. Thus, the starkness of Fischer’s third floor show is only superficial. Once engaged, any visitor is quickly drawn into a captivating reality mediated by unknown, even humorous forces.
Upon heading down to the second floor, Urs Fischer’s surreal artwork once again changes meaning and function. Referred to as a “game of multiple reflections,” by the New Museum, this space holds fifty mirrored boxes that have deconstructed a diverse body of material objects. In various sizes and shapes, these geometric forms represent one angle of a random material such as a blowup of a CD lens cleaners case, a family album, Fruit Loops, and a cardboard cut out of a famous pop star. Each object is photographed with such precision that its typical form becomes obsolete. During my visit, one guest shouted: “Is this even cheese?!” However, while the individual sculptures explore these material objects in a surreal and technical manner, their mirrored backgrounds create an interconnected and approachable environment, as each surface reflects the background of its surrounding objects and imagery. Together in one small room, these unrelated objects become intertwined with each other and the museum’s guests.
From floor five to two, Urs Fischer’s imaginary world might provide a momentary escape from reality, but these works are not irrelevant. First, Fischer 's art demonstrates abstraction doesn’t mean impersonal. As opposed to 1960’s conceptual art, Fischer’s geometric forms are not detached from guests’ engagement. Rather, the viewer is compelled to inspect and interact with Fisher’s organic objects on floor five. In addition, this sense of participation in Fisher’s surreal world is continued on floor three. Also referencing 1970’s performance art, Fischer and his mocking tongue artwork playfully challenge the traditional engagement between the art and the viewer. Lastly, the deconstructed material objects on floor two signify a unique, more personal critique of the commodity form. While 1980’s artists such as Jeff Koons and Haim Steinbach questioned the traditional function of certain materials, Urs Fisher calls his viewers to interact in this process. As each gallery guest inspects certain angles of a cereal, electronic equipment, or other various deconstructed objects, his or her reflection in the background of these shapes represents the inherent interconnection between the self and the commodity object.
Consequently, as opposed to real estate mantras or the New Museum's neighborhood controversy, Urs Fischer proves location isn’t everything. Whether critiquing the institution, the commodity form, or a traditional notion of reality, Urs Fischer’s surreal artworks and environment question and captivate its’ audience. From melting pianos to unidentifiable shapes, a guest is drawn into an alternate world that highlights the impermanence of our perceived surroundings. While outside the New Museum, social issues regarding its location continue, inside this downtown institution space and time are personal and subjective issues. Upon leaving Urs Fischer’s strange and surreal areas and reentering the New York City streets, one realizes that the surreal, the strange, and the creative can be personally captivating, no matter how bizarre or unfamiliar the location may be.
Starting from the fifth floor, the visitor is confronted with five enormous aluminum sculptures that create a surreal, unfamiliar atmosphere, but remain surprisingly naturalistic, approachable, and inviting objects. Each imposing, massive metallic piece appears to defy gravity and is hung in such a manner as to appear floating in space. However, despite the obscurity of these huge, formless structures, their presence does not provoke a sense of confusion or alienation. Rather, the viewer is a participant in this other world. These cocoon-like shapes render a natural, approachable environment, as the viewer can walk around these organic forms and feel subsumed into Ficsher’s abstract, but captivating space.
After a stroll down to the third floor, Ficsher’s surreal domain transgresses from captivating to playful. At first glance, this room is grey and drab, with only a small sculpture in the middle of the overcrowded room. Yet, with a more thorough exploration, the visitor will find this floor houses two provoking pieces. Venture to the corner of the room and you will be mocked! As tons of museum goers cluster around an empty portion of the floor space, once you step over a subtly defined black line, a plastic tongue quickly protrudes from the wall and teases your own sense of intrigue. Turn around, and your intuition will once again be challenged. Positioned in the middle of this space is a neon purple plastic piano that appears to be ferociously melting from some invisible, unperceivable physical force. Thus, the starkness of Fischer’s third floor show is only superficial. Once engaged, any visitor is quickly drawn into a captivating reality mediated by unknown, even humorous forces.
Upon heading down to the second floor, Urs Fischer’s surreal artwork once again changes meaning and function. Referred to as a “game of multiple reflections,” by the New Museum, this space holds fifty mirrored boxes that have deconstructed a diverse body of material objects. In various sizes and shapes, these geometric forms represent one angle of a random material such as a blowup of a CD lens cleaners case, a family album, Fruit Loops, and a cardboard cut out of a famous pop star. Each object is photographed with such precision that its typical form becomes obsolete. During my visit, one guest shouted: “Is this even cheese?!” However, while the individual sculptures explore these material objects in a surreal and technical manner, their mirrored backgrounds create an interconnected and approachable environment, as each surface reflects the background of its surrounding objects and imagery. Together in one small room, these unrelated objects become intertwined with each other and the museum’s guests.
From floor five to two, Urs Fischer’s imaginary world might provide a momentary escape from reality, but these works are not irrelevant. First, Fischer 's art demonstrates abstraction doesn’t mean impersonal. As opposed to 1960’s conceptual art, Fischer’s geometric forms are not detached from guests’ engagement. Rather, the viewer is compelled to inspect and interact with Fisher’s organic objects on floor five. In addition, this sense of participation in Fisher’s surreal world is continued on floor three. Also referencing 1970’s performance art, Fischer and his mocking tongue artwork playfully challenge the traditional engagement between the art and the viewer. Lastly, the deconstructed material objects on floor two signify a unique, more personal critique of the commodity form. While 1980’s artists such as Jeff Koons and Haim Steinbach questioned the traditional function of certain materials, Urs Fisher calls his viewers to interact in this process. As each gallery guest inspects certain angles of a cereal, electronic equipment, or other various deconstructed objects, his or her reflection in the background of these shapes represents the inherent interconnection between the self and the commodity object.
Consequently, as opposed to real estate mantras or the New Museum's neighborhood controversy, Urs Fischer proves location isn’t everything. Whether critiquing the institution, the commodity form, or a traditional notion of reality, Urs Fischer’s surreal artworks and environment question and captivate its’ audience. From melting pianos to unidentifiable shapes, a guest is drawn into an alternate world that highlights the impermanence of our perceived surroundings. While outside the New Museum, social issues regarding its location continue, inside this downtown institution space and time are personal and subjective issues. Upon leaving Urs Fischer’s strange and surreal areas and reentering the New York City streets, one realizes that the surreal, the strange, and the creative can be personally captivating, no matter how bizarre or unfamiliar the location may be.
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