Faint Magazine Interview

‘Adobe Mask, 2012

FAINT MAGAZINE

the arto
ALEX FISCHER

Words and Interview Harley You

The visually compelling artworks of contemporary Canadian artist Alex Fischer are a complex view
of modern life in the age of information technology and social media. Using elaborate digital tech-
niques to render portraits, landscapes and other abstracted forms, Fischer explores themes related
to online identities, the diversity of broadcast information and the development of subcultures on the
internet. In an ever changing, developing world of new digital forums and “likes”, Fischer presents
images that speak more broadly to the human spirit and ascend the media that was used to create them.

Harley Young: Your back catalogue of artworks appears to be
quite varied in terms of medium, from paintings and seul
ture to your current digital co Can you please
Usa little about your techniques and If you have any prefer-
ences?

‘Alex Fischer: 've always been interested in using what was at
hhand, and with computers boing so ubiquitous in ito, today it
‘seems the cigital is most natural place for me to make artwork. |
still ike to combine the techniques of several traditional media in
rm sculptural work, but as far lat work goes the gta feels like
the most rich environment for me to explore | collect things like
Images and interesting materials and then through either digital
or physical methods le them together. Photoshop is my
workhorse, i's where | sketch out, layer, and complate most of my
work. Even the sculptures Im working on today ar often digitally
sketched out oF 30 modeled before they'e constructed or ordered,
‘That mixing of diferent media is really one ofthe few general con-
stants across in my practic.

Some of your Images evoke Intrigue with their visual
‘Are these portraits based on people known
do

[AF: Woll, | think portraits stil mako up a relevant pat of culture.
Social media portraits are prolific. Many people put a great deal
of themselves into their digital identities. t seems inevitable that

social behavior and sonse of soll. Aciital assemblage then sooms
‘most apt for representing the phenomena of being in a digital
‘environment. | ty to ereate something or someone new through
the layering of many images of faces. In the end I think one my
Portraits may be well understood as an image of many people at
‘once, al with their metaphysical baggage on display.

HY: From looking at photographs of some of your past exhibi-
tion installations it appears that you explore a variety of im-

variations of the same work or theme when they exhibit. Do
you preter not to be limited by conforming to one overall con-
sistency in an exhibition or do the works stand alone not as

they are shown on blogs or gallery walls | feet
liberated knowing that the works will havea lie independent of
‘each other. I come up with work with that independence in mind
and treat each as having a unique character. Though changing
imy style may seem to be @ bit counterintulive for establishing
1 recognizable oouvre as an artist it makes sense to me to use,
combine, and re-imagine the styles at my disposal

‘Also, because the digtal has no natural characteristics the

and scale of a work can vary alot. Ike to practice such @
versatlity of style as moans to represent the variety of visual
languages being broadcast and blogged everyday. | also tend to
sult elyle to scale, If ve set out fo do an image on the scale of

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‘great history painting it makes sense to use that scale to do a
digital simulation of brush oF paint. Smaller works are prone to
have @ more photographic aesthetic, and some smaller stil may
only exist as a soreen based work

HY: Ate your landscapes taken from the Canadian country-
side of are these constructed environments drawn from the
Imagination?

[AF: | grow up inthe countryside outside of Toronto so I definitely
hhave that influence but they are normally not of any place in pa:

HY: It has beon sald that you explore themes relating to
technology and the internet and how this has influenced
‘modern human beings. Can you please elaborate on this or
toll us alittle about your main inspirations and themes?

[AF: Fielly, | think one of the most interesting things spawning
from the internet today is the concept of cyberbalkanization
Basically, i's the concept that people wil search out and
Culivate similar intrest groups tothe exclusion of thers. I's con
trary tothe traditional idea ofthe internet facilitating globalization
‘and public discourse. Those things undoubtedly happen, but i's
‘eany to forget that Instagram will only show you who you've sub
scribed to, The nature of the web means i's unlikely you'l exist
within a completely closed circle, but the effect has been to sup
port and accentuate an ever-broadening array of subcultures,

More generally my themes relating to technology stem trom an
‘aim to represent the time in which | ve I's easy to 6 the world
today as being heavily influenced by our symbiosis with
technology. However, I ke to have the entre history of media
Inform my practice and so | also take up a historical approach to
Understanding context. The emphasis we put on contemporane
ity tel is a prety recent trond. In big history we've come a tong
way very quickly, and looking to the future, f Moore's Law stays
true we must expect that people will continue to have to adapt to
huge technological advances. These advances are not necessary
noticeable game changers but are much more likely to be
Introduced day by day tous as erations and updates,

There isa sense that we are tumbling forward hastily in in a works
0 rapidly changing. Truly, in 2005 no one could have predicted
that to "Like" something would hold web-culture-lout. Today's
Vocabulary had just not been invented yet. Similarly cultural
language from 2008 now already seems datod. Instagram, Vine,
‘Tumble; these are just the latest. This shit of language will
continue to happen as it has, but now it is augmented ang
hhyper-accentuated by the torrents of digital subculture and social
‘madi. | think as an artist ty to Brush aside the languages that |
think wont have cultural resonance 10, 20, o 100 years trom now.
['mrepresentin the human beings | know in their man-made scene
both for pple today and those who willook back on what we were.

HY: While some of your digital work looks somewhat mini-
‘alist, many others are complex layers of photography and

very painterly information. Are these works created solely by

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‘computer manipulation or Is any paint used at any stage in
the process?

AF: These days my flat work Is made entirely through digital
techniques. Sometimes Il scan a particular texture or photo
‘graph something for reference but the assemblage is all done in
Photoshop and Corel Painter. ve done experiments but never
really thought that applying paint or traditional collage to a printed
‘work added al that much I'm more interested in simulating those
traditional texture in order to suggest that the digital versions can
be just as authentic as the printed work

HY: Your sculptural works both compliment and enhance the
two dimensional representations you also create, and yet the
techniques used to make the works are very diferent. Do you
find It challenging to assemble objects in free standing form
that appear as i they have walked straight out of one of your
digital works on the wall?

[AF: I's definitely a challonge | welcome. The tools and materials
‘are obviously quite sifeent but there are stil the same under:
lying principles of authorship being applied. Both the sculptures
land fat works involve a blending of memory, observation, crt
ism, reasoning, imagination, and reconstruction. {find ther isn't
‘a5 much of a difference as people might think between throwing
layers around in a digital space and a physical one. | also think
that a6 3D printing technologies and augmented realty become
more accessible that It's good practice as an artist to hone skills,
for creating both the illsion of space and actual physical ob
jects. The diferance between the two is likely to get les and less
distinguishable

HY: Your work Is represented in distinguished corporate
{and private collections, you have exhibited regularly and are
represented by prestigious O’Born Contemporary gallery in
Toronto, Would you attribute your artistic success at your
young age to anything in particular or offer any advice to as-
piring young artists?

|AF: Make connections and utilze them. While in art schoo! |
applied for as many grants as | could in order to advertise
my thesis exhibition to the Toronto arts community. t was a
Combination of sel-promation and becoming familar with the
gallerists and artists in my local scene that let me know where |
wanted to be and who would be interested in showing my work
I's important to keep some network of peers too; people who
‘are happy promoting each others’ work and who can also offer
‘some ertical discourse. Networking isan inherent part of any arts
‘education today but realy is integral for Keeping up a practic.

HY: Your first published artists book Smarter Today was
published by O'Born Contemporary and Wassenaar in 2010.
Can you tell us alittle of what itis about and do you have any
‘current plans for future publications?

AF: Speaking about seltpromotion.. AS | approached my frst
major solo exhibition | was interested in translating my dig
tal works into take-home editions. A book is usualy a great

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Introduction to an artists work and is affordable for a collector on
‘any budget. | was fortunate enough to have made a connection
with Wassenaar publishing and so It seemed apt to produce a
limited edtion publication basically intoducing myself with a
Catalog of early works. It aso offered up a writen interview and
scription of my artistic process, which is stil a primary taking
point when someone sees my work forthe fist time

| think a8 nice as it is to hold a book in hand my next project
will ave to be digital. Maybe an iPad style feature that offers
‘some video of detal shots. Im always working onthe design ang
function of my websites too, which I tend to think of as sort of fluid
publications

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Opposite Page Grandtather Wreath, 2010
‘This Page Untitled Body Landscape (Part 1), 2007

any artists who have inspired or influenced you in
there some favourites you would recommend

In the past Daniel Richter, Nigel Cooke, and Peter Doig inspired a
lot of my flat work. These days some of my favourites are Enrico
David, Mai-Thu Perce, Matthew Ronay, and Tom Friedman.

artotalxtischer.com

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