Foreword by Claus Tieber

ZOON SYNTHETIKON

For his 1992 one man show 'Brown Paper Bags' Michael Fischer created masks. Were the masks of animals, gods, mythical figures? These imaginary creatures in which a comic strip and science fiction aesthetic were combined in one mask were the starting point for the paintings in this show.

After the success of 'Brown Paper Bags' Fischer developed his creatures further. First, again as masks which were the blueprint for ZOON SYNTHETIKON. The artist knows how to use synergy effects. On the whole Fischer is less concerned about a lofty understanding of art (the fact being we are looking at traditional paintings) than about Pop - not in the sense of PopArt, but in the sense of a popular ideology, which challenges the traditional understanding of art. Unfortunately that is still necessary at a time when not only Jeff Koons but also someone like Friedensreich Hundertwasser is part of popular art. Pop has the big advantage of being able to respond quickly. Changes in society and culture are first reflected through Pop.

As artist, whose sensibility for such changes is supposedly higher, Fischer was, in any case, faster than the American Culture Industry. Even if Fischer does not like comparisons, e.g. with 'Jurassic Park', his work reacts to a new need for the archaic and primeval. But it does not - and that is why it is art - satisfy this want completely. Fischer does not sell out to trends of the moment. His images keep their distance from the viewer and so win their wit and humor, which is very different from merely post modern irony.

Fischer's beings(?) look at you. The viewer can't tell whether they are alive, dead or pure imagination. The colorations of the paintings support this feeling. Mostly tones of grey, the little color spots create insecurity.
One could see Fischer's panorama of a primeval, a futuristic, an unreal fauna as 'Gesamtkunstwerk'. But there is, in each and every one of them the whole concept of ZOON SYNTHETIKON.

For those who are looking for the political side of Fischer's work, it is to be said that art which doesn't comply with the art market's criteria and still lasts is already politics. Besides that, these images are hardly 'pocketable' by the right, not even salon fascists. Which is, these days, not only important but can't be said very often of explicit political art.

© Claus Tieber 1993