Rita Fischer

There are many ways to read Rita Fischer’s paintings and sculptures. One way is via the diversity of the native trees that are endemic to Uruguay and South America and their ecological dilapidation. Many recurring blood orange motifs recall the spiky and twisted flowers of the ceibo, the espinillo or the tala. Other installations are full of the soft and spongy wood of the ombú, an indigenous tree with a huge trunk. Those abstract floral patterns are often mixed with branches, plastic, everyday objects, ropes and metal particles or pools of what looks like oil spilt on water. 

In Rita Fischer’s world, organic and inorganic matter fuse in an abstract and poetic manner. There is uncertainty, there is an idea of the infinite landscape and there are signs of an ecological calamity but there is also hope and longing for further growth. “Last year”, she tells us, “Uruguay experienced an unprecedented water emergency due to severe drought aggravated by climate change. If you were lucky, you could buy bottled water, but even that ran out at times ... I collected water from the minimal rainfall using all the containers within my reach.” 

It is from this position of lack and urgency, of finitude, and of renewal, that Rita conceived her site-specific sculpture during a residency in St. Pölten. Some of its elements come from the garbage that we have been collecting in the Mühlbach and the Traisen during the past year. The sculpture sits netxt to the former Segl-Mill. From a distance, we can perceive it as the physical intrusion of a foreign body along the riverbank, a fusion of things collected by a wind, a current or a tornado, or as an illegal deposit of sorts, both dystopic and spectacular. As we approach, objects become recognisable—including various water containers, trunks, roots, plants and moulded, sculpted or crushed pieces. We notice the meticulousness, the complexity and the fragility of this unidentifiable ecosystem. It is like a hybrid that makes us lose our references or rethink them in order to go somewhere far beyond. 

Rita Fischer (1972, Young, Uruguay) currently lives in Montevideo. Her artistic practice is linked to the loss of frames of reference, uncertainty and alienation, through painting and painting in space. Her exhibitions include, among others: "Sharing the Beauty" at the China Millennium Monument Museum in Beijing (2017), "NOVUS" Contemporary Art Space (2017), "RDV" in the Galeria Soa, Montevideo (2014) and "No Place" in the Heart Tower, NYC (2014).  She has exhibited at international biennials: 2nd Montevideo Biennial "500 Years of Future" in 2014 and represented Uruguay at the second Mercosur Biennial in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1999. Rita Fischer has won numerous international awards, including: the FEFCA Scholarship Fund for the Promotion of Education and Artistic Creation in 2012 in Uruguay, the "Salon Montrouge" prize in 2005 in France and the "Paul Cezzanne" prize in 2000 in Uruguay.