Urs Fischer - Contemporary Art Part I New York Monday, November 7, 2011 | Phillips

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • Provenance

    Sadie Coles HQ, London

  • Exhibited

    Paris, Centre Pompidou; Espace 315, Not My House Not My Fire, March 10 – May 10, 2004

  • Literature

    M. Varadinis, Urs Fischer: Kir Royal, Zurich, 2004, p. 28 (illustrated)
    U. Fischer and A. Zachary, ed., Urs Fischer: Shovel in a Hole (Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty), Zurich, 2009, pp. 134-135 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    In the past fifteen years, Urs Fischer has shown a proclivity for reshaping our preexisting notions of spatial experience; he leads us to reevaluate our relationship to the aspects of our environment that we usually deem unremarkable. Through puncturing, shifting, and even shattering our most commonplace surroundings, Fischer disrupts our mundane experiences of interior space, forcing us to observe with a careful eye the backdrop of our existence. In addition, Fischer titles his work in provocative relationship to the piece itself, inviting the viewer to speculate on the intellectual basis of the object in front of him.

    In Not My House, Not My Fire, 2002, Fischer creates an oversized, fleshy door. Clearly differing from our common conceptions of the portals around us, Fischer’s work at once alerts us to both the unique experience of walking through the exceptional door and also the function of a door itself: the present lot’s frame must be situated within a wall in order to serve its purpose as a portal to the space beyond. Fischer’s radical notions of converting the space around us makes him one of the important artists in contemporary art, one whose ongoing project is to heighten our sense of awareness. His careful eye of observation continues to explore the definitions of our seemingly ordinary and deceptively simple environment: “We…undoubtedly continue to learn from his capacity to breathe new life into the strangely limited arena of exhibition design, pointing ultimately to new ways in which to appreciate (rather than feel overburdened by) the wealth of materiality that surrounds us” (J. Morgan. “If You Build Your House on a Bed of Rotting Vegetables”, Urs Fischer: Shovel in a Hole, Zurich, 2009, p. 48).

PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN FOUNDATION

43

Not My House, Not My Fire

2004
polyester resin, polyurethane resin, polystyrene, epoxy glue, acrylic paint, acrylic primer, steel hinges, screws, and wood glue
127 1/8 x 73 1/4 x 22 in. (323 x 186 x 56 cm)
Signed “Urs Fischer” on the interior of the doorway. This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.

Estimate
$400,000 - 600,000 

Contemporary Art Part I

7 November 2011
New York