Thierry Furger

Thierry Furger, born in Switzerland in 1975, discovered the world of graffiti at the end of the 1980s and has since devoted himself to its exploration; today he lives and works as an artist and graphic designer in Zurich. For more than twenty years Furger has been following and documenting the subculture of writers and their products. In 2007 he presented his works for the first time in an exhibition. It was there that the theme of "Buffed Paintings" emerged, which he has continued to develop ever since. To this day, he traces the characteristics of graffiti: These include in particular its transience and the aesthetics of cleaning and removing illegal tags and pieces, but also strategies, techniques and situations of illegal writing. Graffiti means not only many years of practice in dealing with letters and spray cans to develop an independent style, but also to be able to implement this under adverse circumstances, time pressure and poor lighting conditions. A special fascination lies in the breathlessness of its creation and is reinforced by the transience of the images. In view of the efforts of the authorities and broad sections of society to impose order, the works are often only visible for a short time; moreover, they are exposed to the weather as well as to competing sprayers - graffiti is essentially ephemeral. In public space, graffiti merges with its substrate; the connection of the paint with the materials that serve as image carriers are part of its specific aesthetics. Furger's art practice starts with these two aspects, trying to capture emergence, transience and materiality. For the "Buffed Paintings," graffiti or tags are first sprayed onto various supports, which the artist then cleans with so-called graffiti killer. Aerosol or ink, suburban train door or poster frame - depending on the substrate and the application of paint, different compositions of color clouds and wipe marks, of drips and sweeps appear beneath the heterogeneous surface. In this way, the artist creates works that do not emphasize calligraphy or technically adept line work, but rather stage the charisma and aesthetics of speed and transience.