Joel Fisher – blooming parentheses

from
Joel Fisher – blooming parentheses, 2017
folded sheet of handmade paper with watermarks, 23 x 39 cm
14 January 2017

ATARAXIA a blessing for 2014 from Joel Fisher

Joel Fisher – ATARAXIA, 2014
folded sheet of handmade paper with watermarks, 26 x 30 cm

Joel Fisher – Farideh Cadot Associés, Paris

Persons: 'Self' Portraits – The Abiguity of Identity

The question “Who Am I ?” is not one we can answer entirely on our own.  The perceptions of others mix with our own belief in who we are to create our persona.  The roles we must assume in order to relate to different people rearrange significant aspects of ourselves, at least during key moments and perhaps for ever. Identity shifts from moment to moment.

The sense of self is always more than our a physical presence. Even boundaries of resemblance are not exempt. Identity is always surrounded by ambiguity. Despite this, integrity demands a static identity.  It is no wonder that we find questions of identity at the very heart of all of the most intransigent political, educational and spiritual debates.

In this exhibition are ten portrait heads. These‘self’-portraits are self to the extent that some trace of me put the process into motion. Ten drawing sequences started with someone’s drawing of my head.  I take this portrait drawing as a “seed” drawing and give it to a volunteer to look at for three minutes.  After the drawing is taken away that person draws the shape as accurately as possible from memory.  The resulting memory drawing serves as the ‘seed’ for the next participant who repeats the process.   As the sequence continues, each step is filtered through yet another person’s memory.  Step by step something new happens. New shapes come into existence inadvertently. No single individual could have foreseen or invented these forms. The structure enables an opening into these forms. 

The initial portrait drawing invents an image based on my head, transforming it into two dimensions.  My head is not exactly an image. The papier maché objects bring that image back into three dimensions and at this point my head is an image.

I believe that one of the roles of these objects is to condition a momentary pause in the midst of an otherwise continuous flow.  For me they function something like a form of punctuation but perhaps more importantly, they create a moment of access.

Joel Fisher

Joel Fisher – Twelve

Twelve Blessings from Joel Fisher for the year two thousand and Twelve

Exhibitions September – October

Robert Barry

15 September - 31 October 2009

Galerie Greta Meert

Rue du Canal 13

1000 Bruxelles

www.galeriegretameert.com

Mark Francis – Field

11 September – 17 October 2009

Kerlin Gallery

Anne's Lane

South Anne Street

Dublin 2, Ireland

www.kerlin.ie

New York in Amsterdam

Louise Bourgois, John Coplans, Joel Fisher and Michael Gitlin

Art Affairs

3 September – 7 November 2009

Veemkade 354

1019 HD Amsterdam

www.artaffairs.net

Joel Fisher – Publications

Books by/from Joel Fisher

Joel Fisher – Beyond expectations

Sealevel 2/3 – Joel Fisher – Beyond expectations / The book of superlatives
publication, part of Sealevel series, February 2003
21 x 15 cm, 116 pages, cover printed offset-lithography by
Van den Eynde, Belgium, pages printed laser
Designed by Joel Fisher with Peter Foolen and Tjeu Teeuwen
Edition of 300 copies

eagre, n. A tidal wave of unusual height, caused by the rushing of the tide up a narrow estuary.
eager, a. Full of keen desire or appetite; impatiently longing to do or obtain something.
The Oxford English Dictionary

Price € 15

Joel Fisher – Sealevel Isography

Sealevel 2/4 – Joel Fisher – Isography
publication, part of Sealevel series, March 2003
21 x 15 cm, 32 pages, printed offset-lithography by
Van den Eynde, Belgium
Designed by Joel Fisher with Peter Foolen and Tjeu Teeuwen
Edition of 300 copies

Price € 15

Joel Fisher – Isography II

Joel Fisher – Isography
book published on the occasion of Joel Fisher's exhibition Isography at Art Affairs, Amsterdam, 11 January – 26 February 2003
designed by Peter Foolen
21 x 14,8 cm, 32 pages
printed inkjet on Fabriano Accademia 120 gms
edition of 50 copies

Joel Fisher – Isography

Joel Fisher – Isography
photograph, 2003, 21,5 x 22,5 cm
for Marjan on her 50th from Joel

Joel Fisher – Blessings

Joel Fisher – Blessings
folded sheets of handmade paper with watermarks
2001, 28 x 28 cm
2002, 33 x 25 cm
2003, 33 x 25 cm
2004, 22 x 22 cm
2005, 25 x 35 cm

... There have been periods in history when the watermark was used as a vehicle to convey secret signals. Watermarks tend toward subtlety: seldom immediately evident, they are an insistent whisper rather than a shout.
...
I have to come to think of these papers as a blessing, or even as a protective talisman sent to protect, or who I feel need protection. Ours is a fragile existence: which of us have no need of protection?
Joel Fisher

Joel Fisher – Study for Light Catcher

from Joel, 2001

Joel Fisher – Study for Light Catcher
ceramic object, 2001
20 x 19 x 13 cm

Joel Fisher – Apographs

Joel Fisher starts by hand-making paper, a seemingly blank sheet. An image of ‘nothing’ emerges from the bucket of water, breaking its surface. A once chaotic blend of fibres are united into one plane - one sheet - one dimension. When dried on felt fabric the paper absorbs felt fibres, which appear as small peculiarities embedded in the paper's surface. In noticing these fibres, a basic departure from ‘nothing’ has been created puncturing any illusion of blankness. Fisher then pencils the fibres’ composition to a larger scale on the same sheet of paper. Both depiction and depicted become present on the one page. These fibres inspire lines with deliberate significance. Fisher then imagines how they could be sculpted into three dimensions and works towards this end. Fisher ends up with a sculpture that only has one angle of correspondence with the original fibre. The sculpture (the copy of a copy) claims greater presence than its origin, appearing itself to be the origin and the drawn line a copy. The authority of origin is made uncertain.

from press release