Carly Fischer
CVCarly Fischer
Born in 1978 in Melbourne, Australia. Living in Berlin, Germany since 2008
Education
2000 BA Honours (Fine Art-Sculpture) RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
1997-1999 BA (Fine Art-Painting) RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Residency Programs
2008/9
Schmeide Artist-in-Residence, Hallein, Austria
2003
St Michaels Grammar School Artist-in-Residence Program, Melbourne, Australia
Grants and Prizes
2008
Recipient of the New Work Grant (Australia Council)
Finalist for Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Sydney, Australia
2007
Recipient of the Janet Holmes a Court Artist Grant (NAVA/Australia Council)
2007/2006
Finalist for Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Sydney, Australia
2006
Finalist for ABN AMRO Emerging Artist Award, Melbourne, Australia
2003/2002
Finalist for Fundere Sculpture Prize, Melbourne, Australia
2002
Recipient of the Pat Corrigan Artist's Grant (NAVA/Australia Council)
Gallery Kwadrat (Berlin, Germany) & Helen Gory Galerie (Melbourne, Australia)
Collections Private collections in Australia, Japan, Germany and the US
Selected Exhibitions
2010
Time stands still when I think of you, Gippsland Art Gallery, Australia (upcoming solo)
I heard it from my friends about the things you said, Helen Gory Galerie, Australia (upcoming solo)
Swimmingpool Projects, Chicago, US (group)
NEXT 2010 FAIR ART CHICAGO (Swimmingpool Projects booth), Chicago, US
Remix, The Forgotten Bar, Berlin, Germany (group)
#6 Mail, Kantine, Berlin, Germany (group)
#7 Altar, Kantine, Berlin, Germany (group)
2009
I didn`t come here to be a tourist, Kwadrat, Berlin, Germany (solo)
Sarugaku, Souterrain, Berlin, Germany (collaboration)
Sarugaku, Kunstraum Pro Art, Hallein, Austria (collaboration)
Spatial Interruption, Gallery 33, Berlin, Germany (group)
Die Grosse Herbstausstellung, Kwadrat, Berlin, Germany (group)
Zweckgemeinshafft, MICAMOCA, Berlin, Germany (group)
Fundraislinn, Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne, Australia (group)
SFHOTWT, Berlin, Germany (group)
Repeat, Repeat, Platform, Melbourne, Australia (group)
PHB, Berlin, Germany (group)
2008
.BHC, Berlin, Germany (group)
Knorke Goren, Kwadrat, Berlin, Germany (group)
Confusion, Studio 23, Berlin, Germany (group)
Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Woollahra Council, Sydney, Australia (group)
Wasting Time, Schmeide ARI, Hallein, Austria (collaboration)
2007
It`s because we can`t stop that we do it, Victoria Park, Melbourne, Australia (solo)
It`s because we`re all the same that we`re blue, Helen Gory Galerie, Australia (solo)
Just Passing Through, Platform Space, Melbourne, Australia (solo)
Linden Postcard Show, Linden CCA, Melbourne, Australia (group)
The Flag Project, Majorca House Windows, Melbourne, Australia (group)
Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Woollahra Council, Sydney, Australia (group)
2006
Are You Here?, Nakaochiai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (collaboration)
Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Woollahra Council, Sydney, Australia (group)
ABN AMRO Emerging Artist Award, ABN AMRO, Melbourne, Australia (group)
2005
Set Menu, Design Festa Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (solo)
Luminous 2, Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne, Australia (group)
Arts Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (group)
One Night Only, AREA Contemporary Art Inc., Melbourne, Australia (group)
Selected English Bibliography
2007
Marcus Keating, Process, Production and the Invisible Line: Carly Fischer, Artlink Work, vol. 27 no.4 (with cover image)
Megan Bakhouse, It`s because we`re all the same that we`re blue in Art Around the galleries, The Age, 27/10/2007.
Megan Bakhouse, Just Passing Through in Art Around the galleries, The Age, 3/2/2007
Andrew Stephens, Over the Rainbow, The Sunday Age Magazine, 27/1/2007.
2006
Katherine Pham Do, Jack Mclean and Carly Fischer- Are you here? in Art Brief, The Japan Times, 20/4/2006.
Carly Fischer sieht in Berlin den idealen Ausgangspunkt ihres künstlerischen Schaffens. Nirgendwo sonst wird das Verhältnis von Zerfall und Rekonstruktion so fetischisiert wie hier. Eine Stadt, die ihre Debris so unverhohlen zur Schau stellt, dass sie sowohl von Bewohnern als auch Touristen als sehenswert und typisch Berlin erachtet wird. Dieser Umstand dient Fischer als Basis ihrer Beobachtung.
In "I didn`t come here to be a tourist" zeigt Fischer verschiedene Arbeiten, die sich mit dem Moment des konstruierten Zerfalls auseinandersetzen. Das Spannungsfeld zwischen Disfunktionalität und Effizienz zum Theman nehmend, greift sie scheinbare Banalitäten und Fundobjekte auf, um sie aus ihrem urbanen Kontext zu reissen und ihnen durch die künstlerische Reproduktion aus Hartschaum, Karton und Papier eine inhärente Ironie zu verleihen.
An der Schnittstelle, wo die eigentliche Verortung des zugewiesenen Nutzens zurücktritt und die Reproduktion des Gewesenen zum eigentlichen Inhalt wird, siedelt sie ihre Arbeiten an.
Zwar haben diese auf den ersten Blick nichts gemeinsam, beim genaueren Hinsehen allerdings bestechen sie durch eine ironische, teilweise sarkastische Präsenz.
Fischer's installation-based practice focuses on the idea of reproduction and how our world is being slowly stolen and sold back to us through irony as replica and commodity. Much of her work deals with replicating mundane objects from surrounding urban environments as paper models. This replication attempts to both mimic and mock the processes of hyper-production and gentrification which surround her. As almost pointless replicas, her sculptures reflect on their and therefore our own futility and insecurities in a world that is increasingly streamlining and commodifying the relationship between objects, spaces and people.
Fischer's 2008-9 work focuses on the strange fetishisation and commodification of dereliction in Berlin. Here, the broken, the de-constructed and the abandoned seems to be romanticised and recuperated as desirable tourist attractions, appearing in glossy magazines, on postcards, as souvenirs and mock-reconstructions. As the streets are slowly becoming gentrified, the place of these idiosyncrasies is coming into question. Will what is an essential part of Berlin's character be swept away, or will it simply be transformed to mimic the gentrification of the city?
Reflecting on this question and then literalising it's potential, Fischer's Berlin installations incorporate life-sized and miniature paper reconstructions of junk and construction sites as slick, generic models. Devoid of their idiosyncrasies and reduced to ideal models of themselves, pointless replicas, the sculptures reflect on the inherent vulnerability and humor of their situation. In Fischer's installations, the sculptures become like a series of modular units, forming infinitely changeable mock street set-ups. The over-emotional titles, while seemingly compensating for the emptiness of the objects, are also reproductions, stolen from popular songs. Perhaps there is nothing left to say.
If I seem a little strange, well that's because I am
Paper, cardboard, foamcore, adhesives, pins and spray paint
Life-sized models x dimensions variable
2009
Installation view at Gallery 33, Berlin
If I seem a little strange, well that's because I am
Paper, cardboard, foamcore, adhesives, pins and spray paint
Life-sized models x dimensions variable
2009
Installation view at Gallery 33, Berlin
I just don't know what to say
Paper, cardboard, adhesives
Life-sized models x dimensions variable
2009
Installation view at MICAMOCA, Berlin
I just don't know what to say
Paper, cardboard, adhesives
Life-sized models x dimensions variable
2009
Installation view at MICAMOCA, Berlin
I just don't know what to say
Paper, cardboard, adhesives
Life-sized models x dimensions variable
2009
Installation view at MICAMOCA, Berlin
Sitting waiting, anticipating nothing
Foamcore, paper and adhesives
Life-sized models x dimensions variable
2009
Installation view at Kwadrat, Berlin
I only went to see you, but when I got there you were already gone
Foamcore, paper and adhesives
Life-sized models x dimensions variable
2009
I didn't come here to be a tourist
Foamcore, paper and adhesives
Miniature models x dimensions variable
2009
Installation view at Kwadrat, Berlin
I`ve been looking so long at these pictures of you that I almost believe that they`re real
Image: cardboard, paper and adhesive life-sized models photographed on the streets of Berlin.
10 cm x 15 cm
2009
I´ve been looking so long at these pictures of you that I almost believe that they´re real
Image: cardboard, paper and adhesive life-sized models photographed on the streets of Berlin
10 cm x 15 cm
2009
1 in a series of 30 postcards installed at Kwadrat, Berlin
I´ve been looking so long at these picture of you that I almost believe that they`re real
Image: cardboard, paper and adhesive life-sized models photographed on the streets of Berlin.
15 cm x 10 cm
2009
1 in a series of 30 postcards installed at Kwadrat, Berlin
I didn't come here to be a tourist (exhibition)
Installation view at Kwadrat, Berlin
I just don`t know what to say (front) x I`ve been looking so long at these pictures of you that I almost believe that they`re real (back)
2009
I`ve been looking so long at these pictures of you that I almost believe that they`re real
Image: cardboard, paper and adhesive life-sized models photographed on the streets of Berlin.
E x h i b i t i o n - v i e w at KWADRAT, Berlin
2009
Installation of multiples of series of 30 postcards
I only went to see you, but when I got there you were already gone-Fragment
Foamcore, paper and adhesives
70 cm x 20 cm
2008
Life-size model- Dimensions variable
