2017 Catalogue Archive

Austrian artist Benedikt Fischer’s work often applies the traditional metalworking technique of engraving to modern materials such as plastic. In this pin, a series of textured circles, like fingerprints, or the densely packed tiny flowers that fill the center of a sunflower or daisy, break the impossibly perfect smooth surface. It is this contrast between the natural and the human made that powers Fischer’s work. As he writes, ‘Applying a traditional method to an industrial material is for me a way to re-introduce in our contemporary life a certain focus on nature, animal depictions, animal material, as well as the historical connections between these things and wearable art. Plastic is colorful, unlike any other material, but it is also dead.’ A graduate of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, Fischer’s work is represented in public and private collections in Europe, including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the CODA Museum, Apeldoorn; and the MAK Museum for Applied Art, Vienna.