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Contemporary Art
Vernon Fisher
Vernon Fisher, Basutoland, 1986, neon coil, umbrella, transformer, acrylic text, 120 x 120 x 36". Collection of the ASU Art Museum, purchased with funds provided by the American Art Heritage Fund 1993.022.000.
About the Artist
Vernon Fisher (1943- ) uses mixed media in Basutoland (1989), questioning the meaning of progress and human ambition. Through Fisher's own definitions, we are presented with an allegory about fear for human survival in an age of nonhuman, nonthinking computerization.[1] In a definition for "Basutoland," Fisher sarcastically praises people who easily adapt to modernity. He furthers this in a different definition with a story about overzealous mice who, in their quest to become bats, lose many of their special and unique qualities.[2] We can infer from these definitions that Fisher holds a critical view of our current state of technological progress suggesting, like the mice, that we too are in danger of losing the unique qualities which make us human.
How might we interpret the visual elements in Basutoland? We are presented with an umbrella and the graphic of a doctor's eye chart printed on the outside, a coil on neon which illuminates the umbrella, and several visible mechanisms associated with the neon. Fisher has taken an umbrella, which normally functions as a shield against natural elements, and made it dysfunctional by incorporating it into his art. Illuminating this now dysfunctional umbrella with a coil of neon, Fisher appears to be exposing his fear that there is little or no protection against the ills of technology in modern societies. He furthers this point by using an eye chart, a symbol for vision, to make people conscious of the problems he believes are inherently associated with progress and ambition. This is but one interpretation of the visual elements in Basutoland. It is based on the assumption that these visual components are to be understood in conjunction with reading the text. This may not be what Fisher intended. Can you think of any other ways to interpret Basutoland?
As for Fisher himself, what or who has influenced the work of this Texas artist and teacher? As a graduate student in the late 1960s, Fisher experimented with the concepts and techniques of Abstract Expressionism. However, he soon felt that the art expressions within this movement were no longer new or interesting. Fisher began to explore new artistic expressions such as narratives, language, the use of mechanisms, and concepts like dysfunction. One of the first influences on Fisher's use of language came from the work of the California artist Edward Ruscha. Ruscha's use of slang and colloquial language inspired Fisher to do the same. Ruscha, along with the artists John Baldessari and William Wegman, has also been influential for using humor in art.[3]
Fisher's use of text associates him with the traditions of Texas storytelling and with the Narrative Art Movement. Though artists previously had explored the juxtaposition of text and image before this time, it was during the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s that artists emphasized an extended storyline. Fisher's works function as visual stories. His narratives are taken from everyday observations, fragments of overheard conversations, childhood experiences, failed love affairs, computer errors, and misunderstandings.
Through his art, Fisher questions objective reality, and expresses his distrust of the means of communication humans have created. Fisher contends that our use of symbols and signs, both visual and verbal, are artificially or socially constructed. He exposes this by playing with language and the way we conventionally define the world around us. Yet, in doing so, Fisher does not necessarily make the message(s) or meaning(s) of his work obvious. Instead, he typically hides any meaning in order to confuse and distract the viewer. This displacement of our perceptions and thoughts is a covert way to illustrate how we live and communicate in a subjective reality. [4]
By Emily T. Robinson, curatorial intern, Arizona State University Art Museum.
Basutoland was included in the exhibition Dis/Functional.
Endnotes
[1] The 38th Corcoran Biennial Exhibition of American Paintings/Second Western States Exhibition (Washington, D.C.: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1983), 42.
[2] Hugh M. Davies and Madeleine Grynszteijn, Vernon Fisher (La Jolla, CA: La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, 1989), 83.
[3] Ibid, 8-9;78-79.
[4] Ibid, 8-9.