Artwork Review: Simone Fischer at Astoria Visual Arts

Here in the Pacific Northwest, as the sunshine will take its annual relaxation behind shrouded clouds, we obtain ourselves at the begin of winter season, a time of calendar year when we retire to our residences and creativeness flows to the snap of firelit wood. Simone Fischer, a Portland-based mostly, multidisciplinary artist responds to the simply call of the time and employs winter for relaxation, reflection and art-building. Her solo exhibition, “OFFAL,” on watch at Astoria Visible Arts by November 28th, highlights what Fischer terms the “poetics of iron.” 

Fischer is similarly a garden fanatic and “OFFAL” centers on food stuff, extra specially, on the un-foodstuff or waste merchandise identified in today’s agriculture. The exhibition text presents the subsequent definition for the phrase:  “the entrails and inner organs of an animal utilised as foods / refuse or squander material / refuse from a procedure / from af ‘off’ + vallen ‘to fall.’” The phrase, as pronounced, is a homophone of  “awful.” This comedic irony is laced all over the demonstrate which critiques the ethics of our present-day food items economic system underneath late capitalism and begs the problem: “How awful has it definitely develop into?”

Simone Fischer, Set up perspective of “OFFAL” with the following parts (remaining to ideal): a warning (2021), metal etching “small reminders” (2021), cans and bottles with flocking and Swarovski crystals “Steal handbag” (2019), brushed metal, straight chain, steel stand, plastic bag “POWER RELATIONS” (2020), metal mild sculpture, crushed cart

As guests wander into the gallery, they are right away confronted with Fischer’s set up sequence Electrical power RELATIONS (2020) which contains a steel light sculpture and crushed grocery cart. The gentle sculpture, containing rows of fluorescent bulbs stripped of colour and held up by a fabricated metal channel armature provides a boring glow, reminiscent of a dimly-lit grocery retail store aisle. Fischer accounts for the horizontal stripping of the sculpture as a (unfastened) reference to the American flag and nod to the sterile environment of corporate America its dependence on steel for assistance serves as a metaphor for the fragility of our capitalistic modern society. The crushed, empty grocery cart, in which Fsicher has distorted the bottom segment and wheels, reflects our have, individual use. Fischer, who sees the cart as a figurative piece, reminds us of our individual isolation underneath capitalism, our crushed bodies and the factors we have together with it. Ironically, as I left the gallery, I noticed a lonely grocery cart residing on the shadowed side streets of downtown Astoria. 

Simone Fischer, “Steel handbag” (2019), brushed metal, straight chain, steel stand, plastic bag

Fischer’s 2019 installation Metal handbag incorporates a steel stand with a plastic bag and metal container with chain-hyperlink handles suspended on respective ends. The orientation suggests a scale, although given that the bar is horizontal the objects look to be of equal weights. The plastic bag is embellished with red Swarovski crystals outlining the legendary rose and “thank you” imagery discovered on just take-out bags. Both containers offer similar functions, even so 1 is conveniently discarded even though the other is not. I see this installation as a nod to what Fischer calls the “performance of use,” highlighting that our act of consuming ordinarily finishes with discard, nevertheless the objects we effortlessly toss absent comprise value in their functionality. 

These are not the only containers located in the show. Curator Laurel McLaughlin encouraged Fischer to include emptied wine bottles, beer cans and even cigarette containers all around the gallery to spotlight the presence of these squander merchandise/vessels. Fischer works by using yellow, pink, blue and white flocking to adorn the containers, also reminiscent of internet marketing and the use of key colours to sell objects to buyers. The scattered containers offer cohesion for a potent setting in the course of the gallery, the mark of human existence and the place what we generally discard is observed as ornamental. 

Simone Fischer, “Steel/Steal” (2020) steel etching triptych

Around the corner, Fischer’s triptych Metal/Steal (2020) hangs on the gallery wall. In this article, Fischer reveals three replicated two-dimensional steel items depicting a person having shelter beneath a Rockstar electrical power drink indication, a “Steel Reserve” sign and a greenback signal emphasize the history. Along with the flocked vessels, these items are reminiscent of the Pop Artwork business style, probably even a nod to the 1964 exhibition American Grocery store. The triptych’s texture is interesting: Fischer oxidizes rust and makes summary traces of etchings onto the area, which generates a worn search. 

Rust, like mold, provides a type of wearing on surfaces that grows above time. To Fischer, rust is utilized to “express the stress among adore, rage, and shame in my coronary heart in relation to a landscape I have had tiny manage of.” It is a nod to her former community on 82nd Road and as she remembers, “landscapes riddled with addictive advertisements.” The perform-on text of “steel” and “steal” additional highlight the class disparity, these who ought to steal in get to obtain assets and the ramifications for thieving in just our police point out. 

Adjacent to Steel/Steal, Fischer and McLaughlin, hung a warning, one more two-dimensional metal etching. a warning efficiently counteracts the class narrative in Metal/Steal by highlighting the wealthy by means of an abstracted chandelier, an graphic Fischer took on her cell telephone in New York. The piece, which illuminates in light, alludes to the grandiose of the higher course, nevertheless as Fischer has pixelated the chandelier, viewers are confronted with the actuality of the piece. How sustainable is wealth and what are the ramifications of hoarding dollars? Collectively, Steel/Steal punctuated by a warning results in dialogue, a illustration of the disparaging gap among courses. 

Simone Fischer up coming her will work: “Ellison“(1950/2021) observed fabric twisted by the artist’s grandmother into carpet, seeds from Salvation Gardens and “Rearview Exit” (2019) fabricated brushed metal door, construction wire, composite image on chiffon

In the middle of the gallery sits Fischer’s set up collection Ellison (1950/2021) and Rearview exit (2019), arguably the highlight of the clearly show. Rearview exit provides the outline of a suspended, steel doorway that remembers the doorway from her childhood property that is then draped with photos printed on chiffon. The diaphanous representations are a compilation of signage we see as we drive by way of our urban landscapes: the McDonald’s archway, a Marlboro advertisement, many restaurant signs, and even a marquee that reads “SEE YOU IN HELL MY Close friends.” Behind the door, dried Nardello chili peppers hang in the light of the gallery window. Fischer considers this a self-portrait, bridging the gap among old Portland and recently created regions. 

In front of Rearview exit, rests Ellison, a shrine-like providing of 3 distinct seeds, green beans, fennel and echinacea from Fischer’s backyard garden, atop a hand-produced rug, crocheted by her Good-Good-Great Grandmother, Ellison, in 1950. The offerings prolong an invite to the viewer to look through the doorway, even imagining strolling by way of it, previous corporate promotion, toward a far more sustainable foreseeable future. 

Simone Fischer, “Ellison” (1950/2021) identified fabric twisted by the artist’s grandmother into carpet, seeds from Salvation Gardens

Annie Eskelin, the Director of Astoria Visual Arts, points out that the coastal town is an apt house for this exhibit due to the fact it opens dialogue with rural farmers about the results of consumerism on their trade. Fischer creates a relationship between  principle and praxis, OFFAL offers dialogue all-around such themes like the thought of food items shortage, delicacy of the food chain and sustainability via community agriculture.

I loved the dreamy, aspect-dystopian, element-utopian come to feel of the clearly show, in which Fischer and McLaughlin have created a entire world the place the ramifications of our have use is achieved with a tenderness and reminder that the earth, which provides us with the goodness of eco-friendly beans and chili peppers, nonetheless exists to assist us. Fischer’s use of product is noteworthy, chiffon from metal, crystal from plastic and even the emphasis of bloodied animal remains (from the title) counteracting the earthiness of seeds. 

Fischer is a lifelong gardener and all through the pandemic, she shifted her priorities from performing in the studio to planting seeds in her backyard. Elevated by her mother and maternal grandparents on the outskirts of Portland, Fischer grew up with an appreciation for, as she claims, “all things dirt.” “Gardens deliver us jointly just like art does,” says Fischer, whose household ultimately made the backyard garden undertaking, Salvation Gardens, a local community-minded backyard garden in search of to present agricultural methods to neighborhood communities. 

As the clearly show closes and Fischer embarks on her once-a-year winter refuge, she intends to extend on the ideas in “OFFAL” by supplying group meals as a result of Salvation Gardens. Website visitors to “OFFAL” can take part in this prolonged observe Fischer offered smaller bundles of seeds from her back garden as a acquire-absent for gallery website visitors. The offering can mature through the 2022 time and further than. 


Astoria Visual Arts, a federally recognized corporation due to the fact 1989 supports the arts all around Oregon’s north coast by supplying alternatives for exhibition, residencies, and enhanced education and learning for space youth. OFFAL operates by means of November 30th, open Fridays, 12 – 6 pm Saturdays, 12 – 4 pm Sundays, 12 – 3 pm and by appointment. For far more data, please take a look at astoriavisualarts.org or email [email protected].


Kyle Cohlmia was born in Stillwater, Ok. She been given a B.A. in Artwork Background and Italian with a minimal in English from the College of Kansas and an M.A. in Instruction and Curriculum at the College of Colorado, Boulder. Kyle has worked at several artwork museums and galleries which include the Denver Artwork Museum, Oklahoma Hall of Fame, and most recently, as Curator of Exhibitions for the Melton Gallery at the College of Central Oklahoma. She is a former fellow of Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s Artwork Creating and Curatorial Fellowship and has created for various artwork publications including Art Concentration, Art 365, and Oregon Arts Observe. Kyle is residing in Portland, OR as an impartial writer and curator and has recently finished her M.A. in Critical Scientific tests at Pacific Northwest University of Artwork.

By Indana