The artistic work of Liz Gehrer has a very own essential form of expression, which leads across the most diverse areas of sculpture, objects and paintings using related materials such as cardboard iron, parchment paper as the core of her interest. She wishes to tell us about being with , next to or apart from humanity, the daily, unspectacular moments of our existence and in a different context, depicting changes: in short, the unusual of the usual.
In her sculptures of iron and old cardboard, Liz Gehrer connects topical issues, materials and technical processes in a very succinct way. Life Leaves Traces is the subtitle of her first catalogue of work and many of her cardboard sculptures still have aspects of human existence in their titles. Agitated, Antagonism, Waiting and Break-up, Back to the Wall, From Nearby – Sculptures which speak of a deeply felt existence. With her corrugated surfaces, the abruptly projecting cross beams, her cracks and deep impressions are transformed into narrow figures in metaphors of loneliness and transience. Many of the figures seem to pause with intrinsic gestures in the middle of their interaction, their heads facing and sometimes turned away, acting at the same time as a fixed image for the dialogue displaced through the transfer of information and manipulation. In general, the vertical, even super-extended shape associates the figures with increasing individualisation, egocentricity and communication skill in the nonetheless, essential community. By using old cardboard, a typical packing material today, which has a very symbolic, fundamental value from its use to its disposal, Liz Gehrer makes us picture the decaying process of this ubiquitous material. To begin with, creating exclusively over-dimensional over-thin human silhouettes devoid of faces or limbs, communicating silently yet antagonistically with the viewer , she has turned towards small (er) figures over the years, including seated figures of just 25cms high, sitting in groups on high pedestals, whereby the pedestal is not just a presentation surface but a more significant component of the sculpture. Liz Gehrer’s source of inspiration for the «Seated» was and is the observation of the rural dwellers in Italy. During the warm seasons, it is customary to simply sit outside the house, men sit in bars, women and children sit at fountains, on benches, steps, or low walls. It is possible to understand a kind of mental state, harmony or isolation in these people sculptures. Here, human togetherness finds eloquent expression in both posture and gesture.
Liz Geher applies a great deal of collage technique in her paintings, mostly using mixed materials on cardboard. Very often, she incorporates sanded posters or newspaper cuttings on top of each other resulting in an animated or alienated base. Strongly characterised colours, pigments and egg tempera are mixed and composed in the paintings. Sometimes, the rather dark and often deliquescent meshed forms are set against a lighter tone, scarcely noticeable to begin with, but which has a gradual surprise effect on our perceptions as it is viewed. There is a similar process with the implied human forms hidden in the painting, which, at a closer look, step out of their surroundings only to have retreated again at the next glimpse.
The interaction of glues and hardeners during the drying process creates an unusual own dynamic in the objects on parchment paper and this, transported to the sculptures, plays a dominant role in the moulding of them. Strips of paper dried in the wind solidify in movement. Rusty iron clasps and rods have to bend under the strips of parchment stretched around them. Liz Gehrer is intrigued by the polarity of the materials and the apparent reversal of physical laws of phenomena. The artist is constantly trying to allow the work materials their own dynamic to have influences on what is visible around them. Depending on the location and the environment, the works change and the process of shaping can be drawn over months and years. Liz Gehrer supports the process of change also as seen by the viewer, by completely abandoning or greatly reducing the painting of her objects. With this, Liz Gehrer wishes to express that such influences are ultimately nothing more than what counts for our lives and our society: moods and chances, the unforeseen, unpredictable and only the definite controllable things influence us and very often even pave our way. The floor installation «When they are no longer behind glass» is representative of the way, of the unfinished.
This text is partially based on work descriptions by Dr. Stefanie Dathe-Grob, Paul O. Pfister, Annemarie Stüssi, Nadia Veronese and Elfriede Bruckmeier.