«Big clay #4» Urs Fischer concept sculpture was installed in Moscow
People seem to fear art. Art has always been a word for this thing that can’t be rationalized; when you see or hear something that you struggle to explain. But that’s its strength, of course, that’s what the word “art” is for.
— Urs Fischer
The conceptual work of the Swiss artist Urs Fischer, who lives and works in New York, was installed on August 15 in the center of Moscow on Bolotnaya Embankment. The 12-meter sculpture “Big Clay #4“ symbolizes the creative process.
It is a 50 times larger lump of clay and is cast from aluminum. If the concept of a work is absolutely necessary, that’s this : “An ordinary working material captured in a huge size at the very beginning of acquiring a conceived form is a sign of incompleteness, transformation and becoming.” The artist kneaded the clay in his hands and thus had stopped the moment of the beginning of creation.
The sculpture temporarily installed (for 4 months) is perceived ambiguously by many, but if it causes such emotions and discussions, it means that it is capable of “shaking” society by its uniqueness or, in the opposite opinion, its ugliness, but a such thing does not leave indifferent, May be it is a kind of provocation.
URS FISCHER Big Clay #4 2013–2014, cast aluminum, stainless steel (1300x840x520 cm)
Architectural critic Grigory Revzin called the sculpture banal, but noted that from the point of view of hype, it was a success: “Beauty, as you know, is in the eyes of the beholder, and this also applies to shit. In the concept, it was a piece of clay in the hands of the sculptor, but he collected all the shit that is thrown at him. In the concept, it was not a monument, but here, in Moscow, this thing … unexpectedly became it — a monument to the unity in hatred that we pour on the pages of social network”.
Perhaps we live in a unique time when one can find inspiration both in the great works of the past and in an enlarged piece of clay that has become a conceptual thing in present.
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