Franziska Furter – Ripples
28 October 2022 – 21 January 2023
We are very pleased to present new works by Franziska Furter (*1972 in Zurich, lives and works in Basel) in her sixth solo exhibition in our gallery. With few exceptions, the works for the exhibition were all created at the Fundaziun Nairs in Scuol in the Lower Engadine, where Franziska Furter spent three months this summer as artist in residence. This stay had a strong influence on the artist and her work. "The flow of time was almost always physically perceptible: acoustically through the continual sound of the river and visually through the endless passing of the water, sometimes it was bluer or milky. I kept watching the water flowing in the same eddies around the same stones. Or are they not? Are they all different?"
The title of the exhibition Ripples is programmatic. The simple translation of the word ripple with the German term Welle does not do justice to the variety of meanings of the English word. Ripple does not merely imply the description of a wave, but the temporal extension of a sequence of waves. As Furter points out, the term explains the repetition of concentric circles, such as those caused by a stone being thrown on a water surface. This steady, concentrated progression is similar to Franziska Furter's way of working.
Always Remember Us This Way, 2022, ink on paper, 200 x 160 cm
With Or Without You, 2022, ink on paper, 200 x 160 cm
A Case Of You, 2022, ink on paper, 200 x 160 cm
In the exhibition, Franziska Furter shows works from five groups of works that address themes of her artistic activity in different forms: order and chaos; repetition, movement, flow without beginning or end; ambiguity, contradiction and similarity; balance and equilibrium; visualisation of the invisible and representation of the imaginary. In three large-scale ink drawings, the artist leans on standardised background images of explosions for manga artists that can be purchased in any paper shop in Japan. By enlarging and altering these images, they develop a great pull and become the main protagonists.
The 24 works in the Ripples series are based on Furter's preoccupation with the marbling technique, which she had already used in earlier groups of works such as Remains of the Day, Coronas and Scattered Rainbows. For the Ripples, Furter spreads blue, oily ink colour on the surface of the water and dabs the drawing with the paper. Here, the distribution of the paint on the water and the artist's movement determinate the form of representation.
Ripples 6, 2022, ink on paper, 20 x 30 cm
Ripples 1-30, 2022, ink on paper, each 20 x 30 cm
Ripples 10, 2022, ink on paper, 20 x 30 cm
Ripples 14, 2022, ink on paper, 20 x 30 cm
Ripples 28, 2022, ink on paper, 20 x 30 cm
Ripples 30, 2022, ink on paper, 20 x 30 cm
In both rooms we encounter small figures called Small Fires. They consist of a spherical magnet and rusty nails found in the Inn. They are shapes reminiscent of sea urchins or explosions, creatures from another world. The rusty nails probably come from boards found in the area, which were burned in the former bathhouse (the building of the Fundaziun Nairs) to heat the water and were simply dumped over the balustrade as waste.
Small Fires 1 - 3, 2022, iron, magnet, 16 x 19 x 18 cm; 24 x 32 x 19 cm; 19 x 23 x 16 cm
Small Fires 4 - 5, 2022, iron, magnet, 19 x 27 x 25 cm; 29 x 26 x 26 cm
From the Waveland series hangs Tukutuku, a lattice construction hangs on the wall in the front room, in which "errors" have crept in, which Furter deliberately leaves standing and which thus become an essential part of the work. The filigree work Atoms of Delight 3 places a red accent on the wall and leads over to the works of Anne-Lise Coste.
Waveland/Tukutuku , 2022, glass beads, nylon, 100 x 94 x 15 cm
Atoms of Delight 3, 2021, glass beads, nylon, 130 x 10 x 5 cm
Franziska Furter's exhibition emanates a great trust in her artistic work and shows a confidence that everything is connected and finds its place.