Bei Galerie Hubert Winter, Kontorhaus Mitte, Berlin
As Water agrees with Glass
Berlin for me is a place more about memory than any other place I have ever been. It struck me so years ago and the impression has only become deeper and more personal over time.
Berlin has a significance for me.
Because of this I wanted the exhibition to have something about memory at ist core.
Twenty five years ago I was living in Berlin. It was a very important time for me. Like Berlin at the time, I was both certain and uncertain, confidant and insecure.
In the quarter of a century since then, it seems we have both grown up, gaining and losing in equal measure.
For me to see the city now is a constant play of memory - I come across details which I recognize, but the links between them are fuzzy. Sometimes a street corner will say something to me, but I don´t know how.
I want to do something that honors Berlin´s significance for me.
I need to do something about memory and growth.
something about the ordinariness of the extraordinary
something about the extraordinariness of the ordinary
about some things that appear to be solid in the world of flux
about the construction and dissolution of image
about selection, and evolution
about transmission
translation
memory
history
punctuated equilibrium
and some angels I knew
in Berlin.
Details of the exhibition
The exhibition will consist 5 objects. Except for two, all of them are wall based.
Each object is based on a moment in the middle of a sequence of drawings. I think of these objects as finding and creating a moment of weight and equilibrium, of anchoring a state of flux. Even if in reality the sequence of drawings is a series of steps, not a continuos flow.
The series of drawings is social in the sense that it mixes my mind and hand with the minds and hands of many others. Each drawing is linked on both sides of the work to someone else.
The process is simple:
1) A „seed“ image is chosen. This can be for instance a drawing or photo.
2) Someone looks at this image for three minutes.
3) The „seed“ is then hidden away.
4) The person draws it from memory, taking as long as he or she wants.
5) The resulting drawing becomes the seed for the next generation, as the process is repeated, and so forth.
Quickly the original images become lost. In the end they may or may not be relevant. In this case two of the images come from separate evolutions based on a drawing of an artist born in Berlin in 1913. One is a photo of the bark of a sycamore tree, one is an insect that resembles twigs on a tree, one is a vampire bat, one is the plan of the city.
The person doing the drawing passes through an experience that is fascinating:One thinks one can remember because it is evident, but it is not.
Joel Fisher (geb.1947 Salem, Ohio; lebt in Brooklyn und Paris)