FABIAN OEFNER

FABIAN OEFNER: genius? ... no.More.

4y ago
2.5K

Fabian Oefner’s visual expression of the invisible effects of the natural sciences and the properties of time is the genesis of his photography, film and kinetic installations.

His art forms encourage us to conceptualize in new ways, and to accept that art and science do not exist on opposite ends of the academic spectrum but rather inform each other in tangible ways.

Oefner was born in 1984. He grew up in Switzerland where he still lives and works today. Art is his lens to experience — from his preliminary studies at the Basel University of Art where he studied painting, photography, typography and art history — to his Bachelor of Arts in Product Design at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Northwestern Switzerland where he learned that successful design was a multi-layer complex process, combining the widest variety of factors: tactile definition, aesthetics, readability, emotional effect, as well as the language of form, into a single functional product. Parallel to Oefner’s tenure as Leica’s Director of Visual Style for Geosystems (2009-2012), he continued to explore and experiment with visualizing time and the invisible effects of the natural sciences. In 2013, he founded Studio Oefner.

Http://fabianoefner.com

“Disintegrating Series” is a suite of images of high performance cars that appear to have blown apart. The series explores essential questions abut the relationship of time and reality, ultimately creating a visually rich rendition of a moment that never existed.

Oefner’s “Black Hole Series” became the centerpiece of 2015 World Science Festival Gala that celebrated the 100th Anniversary of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Like many of his series, “Black Hole” is the result of Oefner`s extensive process of experimentation, made tangible by the chosen media.

Oefner’s most recent installation, “Field of Sound”, created in collaboration with Peugeot Design Lab, is a kinetic sculpture using more than 5000 Plexiglas blades, driven by the sound of a piano. The installation is another demonstration of Oefner’s ability to transform complex theories into physical art.

The profound intention of Oefner’s art defies description. His explorations into the ephemeral poetry of time and the natural world stop us, allowing us to see the invisible, while provoking us to wonder about the myriad magical moments we do not see, while never considering the artist’s process that created them.

Project Description“Disintegrating Series” is a suite of photographs of high performance cars that appear to have blown apart. The series explores essential questions abut the relationship of time and reality, ultimately creating a visually rich rendition of a moment that never existed.

Three years after the release of the first set, Oefner has created five additional photographs. Each one representing a staggering amount of time, dedication and attention to detail.

With Hatch, Fabian Oefner presents his interpretation of how cars might be ‘born’. The first two images show a Ferrari 250 GTO (1962) – again a detailed scale model – breaking out of its shell. The third image shows one of the empty shells left behind among several others yet to hatch.

For the Hatch series, Fabian started by making a latex mould from the model car, which was then filled with a thin layer of gypsum to create the shell.

Several dozens of these shells were made in order to complete the next step: smashing the shell onto the car to create the illusion of the vehicle breaking out. This step had to be repeated a great many times until the desired results were achieved.

To capture the very moment where the shell hit the model, Fabian connected a microphone to his camera, a Hasselblad H4D, and flashes, so that every time the shell hit the surface of the car, the impulse was picked up by the microphone which then triggered the flashes and the camera shutter. Representing a car as a living, breathing organism that has been gestated is a neat twist on car conception; it could be said Hatch is to the automotive world what a stork is to delivering babies.

Join In

Comments (0)

    0