Урс Фишер
nomadic art tent
The nomadic sculpture that Urs Fischer created for Station to Station is something of a steamy interior dreamscape, a glittery, shimmering vision that hypnotizes with lights and textures that both welcome and disorient. In the center of the piece is a plush Hasten’s bed on which viewers lie surrounded on all sides by mirrors and cloud-like smoke. A disco ball rotates above. Is this a place for disco naps? Or is it a glamorous fantasy of decadence and visual riches? Spend some time, look at yourself in the many reflective surfaces, and feel the bedding against your skin and decide for yourself. Dreamy as it is, this space is grounded in the real world and governed by the laws of physics. This place seems like a fantasy, but it is entirely real. As one critic noted of an earlier Fischer work:In a world increasingly defined by virtual realities and digital imaging, is the creative mastery of hand manufacture merely a quaint artistic throwback — nostalgia for a lost cultural past? Is this sculpture a memorial? Given today’s ubiquitous special effects wizardry, shouldn’t art clasp technology to its bosom? There’s nothing virtual about the softness of the bed, nothing digital about the gleam of those lights or the mist surrounding you. Take off your shoes. Climb inside. This is real life.