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Urs Fischer shows a house made of bread in Connecticut gallery

High Carb Art

Urs Fischer shows a house made of bread in Connecticut gallery

Interior of Untitled (Bread House) (Susan Morris)

The unusual, full-scale alpine cabin at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center in Greenwich, Connecticut, reveals itself as you walk close to it. Created by New York–based Swiss artist Urs Fischer, Untitled (Bread House), (2004-2005), is actually made of loaves from Sullivan Street Bakery, expandable foam, and wood. Rugs line the floor along with fallen breadcrumbs. It’s the contradictory use of a soft, perishable, edible material for a solidly-constructed, traditional shelter that is arresting, charming, and unexpected.

Fischer’s solo exhibition is titled ERROR, and marks the 10th anniversary of the gallery space designed by Richard Gluckman (formerly of Gluckman Mayner, currently Gluckman Tang) who transformed a 1902 stone barn, originally a cold storage facility for local orchards (Gluckman also designed the new Brant Foundation Art Study Center in New York). Architecture has become a bigger consideration in Fischer’s artwork, which is composed of sculpture, installation, and graphics, and their spatial relationships to the environment.

Other works in the show incorporate furniture into his bemused, cockeyed universe: Kratz and Untitled, (Soft Bed) (both 2013) feature beds buckling under weight, while Horse/Bed (2013) grafts a workhorse to a hospital bed; The Lock (2007) and You Can Not Win (2003) surreally play with chairs. Filling the double-height gallery, “why do you hate me? i never helped you” (2018) comprises 3,150 small plaster projectile “raindrops” suspended on nylon filaments that shower throughout the space. The title was cited by Leonard Cohen as a favorite expression, and is supposedly a Chinese or Jewish proverb.


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