Benedikt Fischer

‘Some say making is thinking with your hands. I don’t know. I could never say that I understand everything I do, but I definitely think that there is something other than pure rational understanding. Maybe it’s something in between. I personally need both, to keep my head and my hands busy.’

For Benedikt Fischer, the act of adorning, or the state of being adorned, is a fundamental element of human existence. His concern for the origin of this ancient practice and desire, has encouraged Fischer to explore the multiple functions of jewellery though history, in search of its essential meaning. Fischer’s jewellery designs go beyond the cultural, religious and societal connotations of physical adornment. His bold shapes, clean colours and finely textured surfaces are visceral. They challenge the traditional boundaries of ornamentation by appealing to something more primordial in human nature. Perhaps that is why, as Fischer explains, the animal is always present in jewellery making, be it as a symbol of our instinctive nature or as an artistic material. With a solid technical education, Fischer applies the traditional method of engraving to different sorts of plastics in order that his jewellery will endure throughout time. The result is a collection of unique pieces that fuse the old and new, natural and artificial, functional and decorative. 

Benedikt Fischer (*1984, Fraham, Austria) lives and works in Halle, Germany. He completed his studies in 2011, at Amsterdam Gerrit Rietveld Academy, as well as spending a term as a visiting student at Konstfack in Stockholm, Sweden. Since then, his work has been exhibited extensively, at Saatchi Gallery London; Marino Marini Contemporary Art Museum, Florence; OONA Gallery, Berlin; Le Circuit Bijoux, Paris; Jewelers’ Werk Galerie, Washington, DC; and Schmuck 2014, Munich, amongst others. 

www.benediktfischer.at