Katharina Fritsch: the Mundane Made Otherworldly
by Ava Kristy
Katarina Fritsch is one of the most innovative sculptors of contemporary times. Her works take mundane objects and remove them from their traditional contexts by altering their scale and color, creating a familiar but unworldly impression. Apple, created for Parkett Magazine and shown above in the Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery, exemplifies her syilistic eschewing of realism. While often referencing archaic themes of religion and fable, her work appears ultra contemporary, adopting the bright colors and striking visual effect one might associate with contemporary advertising and popular culture. The commercial impression of her sculpture is further implied by the creation of multiples, which although hand-made, retain their perfection of form. Both the departure from reality and the playfulness of her compositions allow her work to be enjoyed as an object of delight, rather than an inherently serious art piece.
Within the white cube, the typical atmosphere in which Frisch’s work is shown, the sculptures transcend the associations of the material object and are opened to new meaning. The starkness of her lines and the often matte finish of the vivid colors distinguishes the objects from imperfections of ordinary life. This kind of concise detail is even more shocking when removed from the neutrality of the gallery and placed in the public sphere. The public sculpture “Hahn/Cock” erected in London’s Trafalgar square strikes an extreme contrast with the surrounding grey military statues. The double entendre of the piece creates an easily identifiable animal while poking a bit of fun at the male dominated military space. The combined impression is one of bold visual impact imbued with a complexity of meaning that exceeds first impressions.
As with many of her sculptures, Fritsch’s Madonna figure defies the traditional interpretations of this often reproduced form. Playing on a well known form of the virgin, this sculpture includes a demure posture, the usual draped robe and the expected symbol of the rosary but disrupts the conventional imagery with the overwhelming, monochrome yellow color. Although this has been the subject of some controversy, the divorcation of the Madonna from her traditional form elevates the piece from the expected and mundane to the otherworldly, emphasizing the divine nature of the subject. The physical changes from the original ease the transition from ordinary to symbolic and encourage the creation of new meaning around societally entrenched iconography. As with much of Fritsch’s work, the formal soundness in combination with the unexpected, or even the absurd, provoke the interplay between traditionalism and innovation.
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Ava Kristy is a fourth year History of Art and Visual Culture and Legal Studies double major. She is currently the Chancellor's Undergraduate Intern at the Sesnon Art gallery where she works archiving the Farr collection, assisting with various installations and managing gallery volunteers. In the future she plans to pursue a masters and PhD in Art History and eventually teach. When she is not working on Art History she enjoys expanding her own practice in fiber arts.