“It is possible to think about Fischer’s production in relation to types of space, both real and imagined, from which the work may have emerged or with which it may be closely associated. Three overlapping spheres can be defined: the studio, the exterior or public space of image and objects, and the realm of fantasy or the fictional. It is these three zones, or the treatment of something from one realm in the manner of another, that creates a liminal quality in Fischer’s work, where things, images, and materials seem not to behave as we might expect them to.”
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master of visual manipulation across media, Urs Fischer has long challenged the status quo and constantly forces the viewer to consider what is real and what is fabricated. On the heels of his successful Problem Paintings—in which Fischer layered quotidian objects such as food or mechanical tools over black-and-white photos of celebrities, eschewing our ability to comprehend the original image at all—Fisher debuted three self portraits in 2015 at the Modern Institute in Glasgow. The present work TITLE was exhibited alongside a cast bronze replica of a fence which shifted in scale from miniscule and easy-to-miss to absolutely larger than life-size and entirely overwhelming. Meant to confuse and destabilize the viewer and their relationship to a seemingly familiar object, the fence epitomizes Fischer’s obsession with duality. Similarly, TITLE itself is a provocative self-portrait of Fischer. In a nod to his Surrealist predecessors, he has layered a cheeky vintage photograph of himself as a child over one of his smoldering vanity black-and-white headshots. The third and final layer, an illusion of broad, gestural, abstract brushstrokes, works to obscure and reveal various portions of the two photographs. The result is a tour-de-force of epic proportions. Not only must the viewer contend with what is present-day as opposed to what is vintage, but the additional painterly layer obscures even the most seemingly and obviously known pictorial elements.