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CASE STUDIES Mikelis Fisers (Latvia)
In Memoriam Visiting Arts/Spike Island International Fellowship Artist, 2002 "In the gallery of Spike Island Mikelis Fisers has created a monumental structure which he has titled In Memoriam. Similar to his previous works, here Fisers combines very different types of material; painting,text, consumer products, even the body parts or by-products of dead animals. The work often takes the form of installation, creating situations or environments. For him this approach to space is a mechanism, away of working which assists an exploration into current states of social affairs. A working method which enables him to tell the story, or mediate a message to his audience. The message and narrative of an artistic work is so often influenced by the particular time, location or social/political context in which it is created. In Memoriam is a work that emerges from a period of working in Britain whilst at the same time having knowledge about Britain from afar. The issues dealt with here reference the particular events which have taken place in recent British history. In Memoriam pays tribute to the 8 million animals that were slaughtered during last year's Foot and Mouth epidemic. The theme of the violence is present also in Fisers’ In Memoriam. The title already indicates the presence of sorrow, loss and mourning. Here he sets out to create an impression, which could convey the monumental scale of the atrocity that Fisers is intent on rediscovering. Large canvases portraying beautiful fluffy white clouds are hung alongside a real bulldozer. The contours and complicated mechanics of the bulldozer are covered, with great skill, in a layer of cowhide from a local Bristol tannery. In doing this Fisers removes the seemingly predatory and aggressive reading of the object, and makes the otherwise roaring piece of machinery mute. The eeriness it creates here is reminiscent of the calm described by Alfred Lord Tennyson in his famous poem In Memoriam: 'calm is the morn without a sound'. A calm, which Tennyson describes as one which hides deep despair beneath its surface. By recreating this unsettling mourning Fisers not only takes compassion upon the lives involved in this tragedy, he also depicts an aspect of violence in the face of economics that represents our present time. Through the daily repetition of the notions of abuse, violence becomes normalised, as a result we accept fear as an inescapable part of our lives" Ilze Black 2002 Ilze Black is the co-founder of art bureau OPEN, Riga, Latvia and a frequent writer for many arts journals. She has also been co-curator of Re_Public_Art, sound art commissioning in public space 2003. Since 2000 she has been collaborating with AmbientTV.NET.
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