Benedikt Fischer: Monocoque

Artist list

Benedikt Fischer

Our daily life is littered with plastic artifacts. Every inevitable chore is facilitated by mass produced implements. Hardly ever do these objects receive any attention, they're just there. Benedikt Fischer was fascinated by all of these buckets, bowls and containers. Every culture makes use of the things that can be found locally, and this is also the case with the production of a lot of jewellery. In South America brightly coloured bird feathers are employed and on the islands in the Pacific the extraordinary shells provide the impetus. For Fischer the time had come to process the plastic implements that are characteristic for our Western society.

In his graduation work he already had experienced that it was worth it to invest attention in simple objects. He had cut up plastic hardhats to make beautiful brooches, intended as protective mascots. He enriched their surface by modifying it into a velvety, sometimes prickly-furry skin. Turning his attention to a broader field of utensils, innumerable possibilities opened up. The next stage was deciding on which things to choose and to discover surprising excisions. After that he started experimenting with the treatment of the material. Instead of his earlier subtle approach, he decided to attack the surface with more violence. But this aggression is only a façade, for the numerous new pattern that emerged, all offer regular refined textures.

Fischer's explorations resulted in a group of necklaces, each one an elegant enigma. He made wearable sculpture, which is not hampered by a lot of weight or heavy theories. They are gestures in space, which give the light every chance to play with the subtle colours, different textures and sensual curvatures. It is jewellery dedicated to the unknown vernacular of contemporary utensils; pendants that make plastic precious.

Ward Schrijver
(© Galerie Rob Koudijs)