THIERRY FURGER – Volatile

Thierry Furger, born in Basel in 1975, discovered the world of graffiti in Basel and its surroundings 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. Furger has been following and documenting the subculture of writers and their products for thirty years. He traces the characteristics of graffiti: These include, in particular, the aesthetics of cleaning, removal of tags and pieces, and illegal volatile writing. The "Buffed Paintings" are sprayed with graffiti or tags on metal frames, then cleaned with "graffiti killer". Depending on the solvent and the application of paint, different compositions of colour clouds and wipe marks appear under the heterogeneous surface. In this way, Furger creates works that stage the radiance and aesthetics of speed and transience.

Artstübli is showing new works by Furger that do justice to the exhibition title "Volatile". This is what he tries to capture and hold on to. For the new works, he was inspired by early works of the "Basel Line".