About
the unusual of the usual
The artistic work
of Liz Gehrer has a very own essential form of expression, which leads
across the most diverse areas of sculpture, objects and paintings using
related materials such as cardboard iron, parchment paper as the core
of her interest. She wishes to tell us about being with , next to or
apart from humanity, the daily, unspectacular moments of our existence
and in a different context, depicting changes: in short, the unusual
of the usual.
In her sculptures
of iron and old cardboard, Liz Gehrer connects topical issues, materials
and technical processes in a very succinct way. Life Leaves Traces is
the subtitle of her first catalogue of work and many of her cardboard
sculptures still have aspects of human existence in their titles. Agitated,
Antagonism, Waiting and Break-up, Back to the Wall, From Nearby - Sculptures
which speak of a deeply felt existence. With her corrugated surfaces,
the abruptly projecting cross beams, her cracks and deep impressions
are transformed into narrow figures in metaphors of loneliness and transience.
Many of the figures seem to pause with intrinsic gestures in the middle
of their interaction, their heads facing and sometimes turned away,
acting at the same time as a fixed image for the dialogue displaced
through the transfer of information and manipulation. In general, the
vertical, even super-extended shape associates the figures with increasing
individualisation, egocentricity and communication skill in the nonetheless,
essential community. By using old cardboard, a typical packing material
today, which has a very symbolic, fundamental value from its use to
its disposal, Liz Gehrer makes us picture the decaying process of this
ubiquitous material. To begin with, creating exclusively over-dimensional
over-thin human silhouettes devoid of faces or limbs, communicating
silently yet antagonistically with the viewer , she has turned towards
small (er) figures over the years, including seated figures of just
25cms high, sitting in groups on high pedestals, whereby the pedestal
is not just a presentation surface but a more significant component
of the sculpture. Liz Gehrer's source of inspiration for the "Seated"
was and is the observation of the rural dwellers in Italy. During the
warm seasons, it is customary to simply sit outside the house, men sit
in bars, women and children sit at fountains, on benches, steps, or
low walls. It is possible to understand a kind of mental state, harmony
or isolation in these people sculptures. Here, human togetherness finds
eloquent expression in both posture and gesture.
Liz Geher applies
a great deal of collage technique in her paintings, mostly using mixed
materials on cardboard. Very often, she incorporates sanded posters
or newspaper cuttings on top of each other resulting in an animated
or alienated base. Strongly characterised colours, pigments and egg
tempera are mixed and composed in the paintings. Sometimes, the rather
dark and often deliquescent meshed forms are set against a lighter tone,
scarcely noticeable to begin with, but which has a gradual surprise
effect on our perceptions as it is viewed. There is a similar process
with the implied human forms hidden in the painting, which, at a closer
look, step out of their surroundings only to have retreated again at
the next glimpse.
The interaction
of glues and hardeners during the drying process creates an unusual
own dynamic in the objects on parchment paper and this, transported
to the sculptures, plays a dominant role in the moulding of them. Strips
of paper dried in the wind solidify in movement. Rusty iron clasps and
rods have to bend under the strips of parchment stretched around them.
Liz Gehrer is intrigued by the polarity of the materials and the apparent
reversal of physical laws of phenomena. The artist is constantly trying
to allow the work materials their own dynamic to have influences on
what is visible around them. Depending on the location and the environment,
the works change and the process of shaping can be drawn over months
and years. Liz Gehrer supports the process of change also as seen by
the viewer, by completely abandoning or greatly reducing the painting
of her objects. With this, Liz Gehrer wishes to express that such influences
are ultimately nothing more than what counts for our lives and our society:
moods and chances, the unforeseen, unpredictable and only the definite
controllable things influence us and very often even pave our way. The
floor installation "When they are no longer behind glass"
is representative of the way, of the unfinished.
This text is partially based on work descriptions by
Dr. Stefanie Dathe-Grob, Paul O. Pfister, Annemarie Stüssi, Nadia
Veronese and Elfriede Bruckmeier.