As a graffiti artist at times you are witness to a great deal of memorable moments in the street or hidden spaces that you have come across during your journeys. Its natural for a writer to explore and gain access to forgotten spaces, abandoned landscapes that become their own personal playground. Thierry Murger has captured some of these experiences through a set of photographs. Using the photography as a starting point he has attempted to recreate some of these experiences and capture some of the essence of an abandoned space. The photographs are printed on heavyweight paper that is layered and layered, weathered to a point that portrays natural degradation. The photographs hang like reliefs with weight and occupying a 3 dimensional space, yet when viewed from dead on look like windows into another world from the gallery space.
Paper and trash occupies many of the rooms of the exhibition space mimicking the photographs on the wall, recreating a natural chaos that the artist witnessed when documenting the original space. It is this paradox of reality and the recreation of that experience that enables the installation to be effective. Thierry understands the need to not only document this world but also the need to recreate pieces of it in a setting much like the setting it was found at. A gallery space is just as out of a place as the abandoned space to find trash and garbage strewn around a place that was once relevant and a place that existed for a reason. Fully functional items such as chairs and office equipment exist with graffiti murals and tags who are also functioning and working components of another reality. Both exist in this vacuum and will be destroyed in due time once the space is redeveloped or torn down. “It was all a Dream” proves to be an impressive installation that not only captures some of these moments exploring as a writer, but also nails home the presentation of the paradox through an extension of the photographs.
GF
Thierry Furger “IT WAS ALL A DREAM”
7 November 2014. 18-21h
During ten years, Thierry Furger has forgotten places visited and documented. In a sumptuous apartment on the Rämistrasse 44, the Zurich artist presents these images for the first time to the public.
David shows ruins of an industrial heyday, which are now empty and fallen to decay. Always reappear graffiti on the bare walls – times, they emphasize the atmosphere of decline, then they are back to the sign of a new life, that settles in the once spacious building. Because writer graffiti are always on the lookout for new spaces, places that even have a background, a history, a special texture. The urge to explore and will just there to gain access, which is usually closed, belong to the decisive characteristics of graffiti culture that is often lost in the transmission in the exhibition space.
He pulled up his photographs on thick poster pack, so that they are even to objects and win a physical presence. At the same time, he has broken up the smooth surface with folds and faults, which mimic an artificial aging process. The layering refers as well to a world that is constantly changing, as well as on the accompanying short attention span. All the more the timeless atmosphere of the factory buildings is for.
Thierry Furger lives and works in Zurich. His artistic work is about since his first exhibition 2007 graffiti and its impermanence. Furgers works stage relics of the spraying as well as erasing the often illegal traces that are left in the public space. The calligraphic results step back behind the conceptual dealing with the processes that accompany the emergence and disappearance of graffiti.
Dr. phil. Rémi Jaccard October 2014 opening Friday, November 7. 18-21 h Thierry David: IT what ALL A DREAM Rämistrasse 44 | 8001 Zurich 1 open stock: 8-9 November Saturday & Sunday | http://www.buffedpaintings.com/