Fruchtzimmer

Alexandre Pollazzon Ltd. is pleased to present the London solo debut exhibition by Swiss artist Fabian Marti. Marti creates photographs by placing objects such as books, crystals, analogue photographs or maybe a slice of bread with a skull directly on the surface of a scanner. By treating the scanner like a camera, as a tool to record, rather than digitalize or translate, Marti isolates his objects, which are seen to emerge, unnaturally spot-lit, from a dusty, pitch black void. This, together with the accentuated texture the scanner registers as it flattens, gives each of his photographs an uncomfortable intensity. Deep elegant blacks and whites contrast with the imperfections and dust left by Marti, and picked up by the scan. For Alexandre Pollazzon Ltd, the exhibition comprises a selection of prints from the ongoing series of book covers ‘Kaleidoscope’ and recent large photographs. The ‘Kaleidoscope’ series of images are made using early science fiction, suspense and crime fiction books. Masking out all text with black tape, Marti leaves only the cover illustration lined with an abstract, textured frame. He then reuses the hidden title of the book for the title of his work. The large prints are linked by their manufacture, but also by the emblematic strength of their iconography. In ‘Komposition für einen Rhombus’, a mirrored profile of a naked woman holds a sword that is aimed towards the centre of her own tattooed chest. Alongside this, the Abstract Cross series presents Runes and Christian symbols sliced across colour film negatives. At once humorous and disconcerting, the prints suggest medieval imagery and Vanitas, the dispassionate detail of the scientific specimen and death. Fabian Marti was born in 1979, Fribourg, Switzerland. Currently lives and works in Zurich and Los Angeles.