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June 19 extended to September 12, 2004 UPPER GALLERY Fabian Birgfeld: Spaces of Allusion Wednesday, September 8, 2004, 4:30 pmFabian Birgfeld subtly draws viewers into his virtual worlds of long vistas and great expanses, hallmarks of the landscape form. Being simultaneously elegant in composition and cool in presentation, the images remain dynamic. These interior landscapes are exhibited here on both an intimate and grand scale. Although the small triptychs can be apprehended at once, the large have the potential to overwhelm. There is minimal human presence in Birgfeld's art. Few figures navigate the human spaces of airports, subways and hotels. Bright lights reflect off smooth hard surfaces, curved and angular walls recede abruptly, and patches of primary colors jump into the middleground between image and viewer. The triptych form offers Birgfeld an opportunity to present a singular vision, unified by a common horizon line. And yet, the three images may be viewed in succession. Birgfeld states: "Essentially, these spaces have a rhythm in accordance to the schedule of the trains, flights, etc. The vessel arrives; it is crowded and then empty... I create a spatial narrative across the three panels, not a panorama, but in a sense a summary of the space across the triptych." One can therefore see this as a triptych in time. Birgfeld creates other virtual worlds in his video sculptures. Viewers venture down office building corridors and up graffiti marked escalators. Contrary to the interior landscapes that expand the real world, the video sculptures intentionally narrow the visual experience. Both forms are visual quotations; re-constructed pictorial references that bridge the real and the virtual. They become allusions to spaces expanded and reduced. The German-born artist Fabian Birgfeld received his Master's of Architecture from Princeton University in 1999, a degree in photography from the Bournemouth College of Art and Design in the United Kingdom in 1996, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Harvard University in 1992. His photographs and video-sculptures have been shown extensively in solo and group shows in Germany, France, Italy and the United States, and were most recently on view at the Goethe Institute in Washington DC and New York. |
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