For over twenty years, Urs Fischer (b. 1973 in
Zurich) has created paintings, sculptures, and
installations that disorient and bewilder, while
exploring critical themes of perception and representation. A keen awareness of contemporary
media and digitization forms a unifying thread
across his remarkably diverse and deeply irreverent
oeuvre. As curator Massimiliano Gioni suggests,
“All of Fischer’s work ... could be seen as an
effort ... to grant body and weight to the immateriality that seems to characterize the digital world.”
Fischer’s fairytale-like bronze sculpture House on
a Hill (2019), which reimagines the eponymous
horror movie trope, is emblematic of this impulse.
Usually an ominous castle or mansion, the cinematic “house on a hill” is typically residence to a
villain or shadowy recluse and perceived as a
site of danger. In a pointedly ironic twist, however,
Fischer exaggerates the “hill” into a vertiginous
spire, while playfully transforming the “house” into
a quaint pink cottage. This parodical attempt to
translate a filmic cliché to sculptural form – bringing
a fantasy to life in a material context – both suggests the emptiness of Hollywood artifice and the
persuasive magic of the film industry.
Cast bronze, primer, gesso, oil paint, LED light, battery
55.9 × 15.2 × 14 cm
AP 2/2 from an Edition of 2 + 2 AP
Copyright: Urs Fischer
Courtesy: Urs Fischer and Gagosian
Photo: Mats Nordman
Provenance: donated by the artist
