PLAY
An exhibition of dancing chairs (literally) by Urs Fischer, choreography by Madeline Hollander, was on view at Gagosian from September 6th –October 13th, 2018.
Play is the origin of fiction —Urs Fischer
Choreographer? What? At first glance this exhibition looks like a room full of chairs. And not just chairs...office chairs.
I was lucky enough to attend the preview of this exhibition, so there weren’t that many people there..and we all were apprehensively plastered against the side wall just watching these chairs.
After awhile they started to move and create various ‘chorus lines’... but nothing magical started happening until we (the viewers) started ‘mingling’ with the chairs.
As we got closer to the chairs they started becoming ‘friends’ with us - I’m not kidding. Certain chairs started ‘bonding’ with each of us, following us around, occasionally bumping into us. And this is no coincidence - these chairs are programmed with machine learning to understand their surroundings and learn from them.
How do they move? With roomba inspired technology. Literally, when the chairs are low on charge they migrate to their charging station (in the backroom).
Urs is a fascinating artist, who I’ve had the privilege of hearing speak at the Wall Street Journal (The Future of Everything Festival). He’s so articulate and insightful. He also has some pretty incredible tattoos.
"I think when tattoos are new and colorful, they look bad. But they look better the older and more bleached out they become." - Urs Fischer
Urs Fischer is a Swiss artist who lives and works in New York (his studio is in Brooklyn). His break into the art world in America happened at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise (in the East Village) where he met and befriended fellow peers like Spencer Sweeney.
"What is the art world? I never really understood. I started doing this stuff to do what I want to do. Not to be this or that." - Urs Fischer
Some of his most famous works include his
Untitled (Bread House) (2004-2005) - mentioned in The New Yorker
'Melting Julian Schnabel' - article written by famous art critic Jerry Saltz for Vulture Magazine
'Rhino of Things' - covered by Hyperallergic
'Clay Katy Perry' - covered by W Magazine
He’s represented by the following galleries
Did I leave any of his best works out? Email me at contact@marylynnbuchanan.com
