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Lot Essay
‘If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t’ – Alice, Alice in Wonderland
Precisely accurate yet delightfully outsized, Urs Fischer’s meme, 2012 is a humorous take on the Duchampian ready-made. Formed of two nails, this deceptively simple sculpture is an enchanting example of the artist’s neo-Surrealist vocabulary, where the fanciful and the banal coexist, where objects grow and shrink with a Wonderland delight. When asked about his attraction to quotidian objects, Fischer said, ‘I don't find them dull. Maybe it's an obvious choice, but those are the things I relate to. What if I did a Fabergé egg? Would that be better? Even if I have nothing to do with it? I just use stuff that’s around me. And those objects, those domestic images, as you call them, are made in human scale, so they can also be related to humans. They’re made by humans and for humans. They speak about us. And they are things you are bound to deal with’ (U. Fischer, quoted in M. Gioni, ‘This is my Grandmother, She Makes Really Genius Cakes: An Interview with Urs Fischer’, in Urs Fischer: Shovel in a Hole, exh. cat., New Museum, New York, 2010, p. 63). Although these tools may be recognizable, Fischer traffics in the outlandish and unexpected with the aim of disturbing the edges of reality. While the title of the present work may hint at a representational meaning, little is illuminated by the minimalist configuration. Instead, meme simply asks for a reconsideration of preconceived ideas, for the fantastical to be believable and concrete.
Precisely accurate yet delightfully outsized, Urs Fischer’s meme, 2012 is a humorous take on the Duchampian ready-made. Formed of two nails, this deceptively simple sculpture is an enchanting example of the artist’s neo-Surrealist vocabulary, where the fanciful and the banal coexist, where objects grow and shrink with a Wonderland delight. When asked about his attraction to quotidian objects, Fischer said, ‘I don't find them dull. Maybe it's an obvious choice, but those are the things I relate to. What if I did a Fabergé egg? Would that be better? Even if I have nothing to do with it? I just use stuff that’s around me. And those objects, those domestic images, as you call them, are made in human scale, so they can also be related to humans. They’re made by humans and for humans. They speak about us. And they are things you are bound to deal with’ (U. Fischer, quoted in M. Gioni, ‘This is my Grandmother, She Makes Really Genius Cakes: An Interview with Urs Fischer’, in Urs Fischer: Shovel in a Hole, exh. cat., New Museum, New York, 2010, p. 63). Although these tools may be recognizable, Fischer traffics in the outlandish and unexpected with the aim of disturbing the edges of reality. While the title of the present work may hint at a representational meaning, little is illuminated by the minimalist configuration. Instead, meme simply asks for a reconsideration of preconceived ideas, for the fantastical to be believable and concrete.