HIGH TIME RYTHEM-AND OTHER SITUATIONS

A CONVERSATION WITH ANDI FISCHER

How did the show come about?

Normally, I have a lot of figures in my paintings in certain situations, like animals and people in fighting or trading situations. This time, I wanted to take the figures out of the paintings and make both landscape paintings as well as bronze figures. The idea of the show was to make the gallery a place where new “situations” could be pulled together, having one crocodile, or two crocodiles, or one person, and changing it up.  I talked to Morten about it, and he really liked the idea of having bronze figures. Morten then told me that he knew someone in Italy that could make the figures, so that’s how it came about. 

I have now started to paint the bronze sculptures; it’s really exciting as they look so similar to wood sculptures, but are not. They are both heavy and difficult to paint, but also quite easygoing and funny on the other hand. And they have the same quality of imperfection as the paintings. When you hold them in your hand and paint them, you almost forget that they are not wood; you almost forget that they’re bronze sculptures. 

How has the long-lasting process of working with bronze sculptures been compared to your usual practice?

I have really enjoyed the process of it. I started doing the sculptures as wood sculptures, and they were really quick even though they took me much longer than a painting. I always try to approach my work with spontaneous compositions and quickness, which is hard to do in wood, as it takes much more time. As I gave the wooden sculptures to the bronze guys in Italy, they were out of my hands, and I really couldn’t do anything more. But now, the process of coloring them is very different from coloring wood or making a painting, but I think and hope that the sculptures will have the same spontaneous situations as the paintings have.

What was your inspiration for the landscape paintings?

I always go to Bretagne in France for a few months a year. I try to go there in the wintertime, because Berlin is so cold and shitty, and it’s a bit warmer there. I like being at the seaside, having the landscapes there. They always impress me, just as the old landscape painters before me have been impressed by the magic of landscapes. I learned that landscape painting is a cool way for me to express my quick and spontaneous style and that it doesn’t need a lot of colors. 

Sometimes I feel like landscape paintings are much more performative than figurative paintings, as landscape paintings don’t have to follow as many rules as figurative paintings. They are much freer, and I think you can see that in the paintings. All the freeness the paintings have, the sculptures do not have. They are both stiff and just “there”. I always try to give both of them something from the other side. I try to give the paintings a bit of stiffness and tradition, as the bronzes have, and the bronzes some freeness, as the paintings have.