IRIS FISCHER DAS BOOT

Inherent in her work is a fascination with the transient nature of time, and with atmosphere as an agent of intoxication. Her work suggests rather than describes almost fantastical locations within the landscape, that trigger memories from times and places that may not even have existed.” (Gregg, Simon, New Romantics: Darkness and Light in Australian Art, Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2011, p. 173)

Catherine Asquith Gallery is delighted to present the ethereal and evocative photographic work of Melbourne-based artist, Iris Fischer. Utilising her native language to title the works, an idiom more comfortable with her sense of romanticism, her approach to her art practice is an intuitive one. As she has noted:

“On my travels to different oceans I am guided by my longing for the idyllic and the sublime to find places rich in atmosphere to nourish the sensitive side of the soul. “Das Boot” is a symbolic sense of journey into the seascape, where the photographic lens extrapolates nostalgic fragments of the ocean, drawing together mysterious threads and glimpses that evoke a sense of poetic wonderment.”

Born in the German city of Cologne but raised in Berlin, Iris has been fascinated and absorbed by ‘atmosphere’ , specifically, the empty sky, and the way in which it helps to shape our perceptions of the landscape from a young age. Coming to Australia in 1985, she brought with her the legacy of a European romantic sensibility, of ‘feeling’ the landscape rather than simply ‘looking’.

Exhibiting in Australia since her arrival in Australia, Iris completed her Bachelor degree at Prahran College in 1990. In 2003 she was a finalist in the Gold Coast Ulrick Schubert Art Award, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, and in 2007 she was included in the “Spooks, Stories of Haunted Melbourne” a group curated exhibition at City Museum at Old Treasury, Melbourne.

To be officially launched by
Professor Miles Lewis, AM, FAHA ,
Architectural historian and commentator
on Saturday 12th November @ 2pm