Fabian Oefner

Fabian Oefner was born in 1984. He currently lives and works in the country that he grew up in, Switzerland. Before going to the University of Applied Sciences and Art in Switzerland to do a BA in Product Design, he went to the Basel University of Art and completed his preliminary studies. There he learnt various artist skills like typography, photography, painting and many more. He liked to “explore and experiment with visualizing time and the invisible effects of the natural sciences” [1]. 

He prefers to present his work as a piece of photography, kinetic installation or as a film.

“The profound intention of Oefner’s art defies description. His explorations into the ephemeral poetry of time and the natural world stop us, allowing us to see the invisible, while provoking us to wonder about the myriad magical moments we do not see, while never considering the artist’s process that created them.”[2]

Studio Oefner. (2017). About Fabian Oefner. [Online]. [Accessed: 20 December 2017]. Available form: http://fabianoefner.com/?page_id=61

[1] First paragraph.

[2] Sixth paragraph.

‘’orchid’’ is the latest series of the ‘’Paint Action“ cycle, which is about modelling paint by natural forces. In this series, gravity created the structures seen in the images.

A tank was filled with several layers of different colours of liquid paint with the top layer being either black or white. Then, a sphere was thrown into the paint. As the falling object splashed into the tank, the paint was forced upwards, shaping the individual layers of paint into a blossom-like structure.

Similar to the other two series of the cycle, ‘’Orchid” is about preserving ephemeral beauty. Photographed with high speed devices, these images capture structures of sublime elegance, which appear only for a fraction of a second before disappearing beneath the surface again.

Studio Oefner. (2017). About Fabian Oefner. [Online]. [Accessed: 20 December 2017]. Available form: http://fabianoefner.com/?portfolio=orchid

The inspiration for this project comes from the action paintings by Jackson Pollock. Contrary to Pollock`s masterpieces, which show the result of his painting process, in the “Black Hole” series, the focus is put on the action itself: the moment, where the paint is in motion. The action painting is turned into a paint action, the process itself becomes a piece of art.

The setup is very simple: Various shades of acrylic paint are dripped onto a metallic rod, which is connected to a drill. When switched on, the paint starts to move away from the rod, creating these amazing looking structures.

Studio Oefner. (2017). About Fabian Oefner. [Online]. [Accessed: 20 December 2017]. Available form: http://fabianoefner.com/?portfolio=black-hole-2

This series is a continuation of my research of manipulating paint with different natural forces. In the „Black Hole“ series, it was centrifugal force, that shaped the paints into colorful carousels. This time I used air pressure to create what I call „liquid jewels“.

The structures you see are modeling balloons covered with paint right after they have been pricked with a needle. The air inside the ballon expands explosively, throwing the paint in all different directions. What I particularly love about the images is that if you look closely, you can see, how the individual shades start to mix with each other, blue and magenta becomes violet, red and yellow becomes orange…within a few microseconds, the paint forms into the most beautiful color combinations…and then its gone again. What remains is the capture of that firework of colors, frozen in time…

Studio Oefner. (2017). About Fabian Oefner. [Online]. [Accessed: 20 December 2017]. Available form: http://fabianoefner.com/?portfolio=liquid-jewel

 This is a LG advert.

Studio Oefner. (2017). About Fabian Oefner. [Online]. [Accessed: 20 December 2017]. Available form: http://fabianoefner.com/?portfolio=lg

The shapes, you see in these image are only about the size of a thumbnail. They are created with the aid of a very peculiar material: ferrofluid.

This liquid has a very unique property. It is magnetic, caused by the millions nano iron particles in it. When put under a magnetic field, the particles in the solution start to rearrange due to the attraction and repulsion of iron. If now water colors are added to the ferrofluid, the pop-art looking structures start to appear, forming into black channels and tiny ponds filled with rainbow colored surfaces. The reason why the black ferrofluid and the water colors don’t mix is that ferrofluid is, just like oil, hydrophobic. It therefore doesn’t mix with the water colors. At the same time it is held in position by the magnet underneath it. So it tries to find a way around the water colors and therefore forms these black channels.

Studio Oefner. (2017). About Fabian Oefner. [Online]. [Accessed: 20 December 2017]. Available form: http://fabianoefner.com/?portfolio=millefiori

  

How does sound look like? How can you make it visible? These were the two questions, that I tried to answer with this project.

Physically speaking, sound is always a vibration, whether it is the song of a nightingale, the sound of a piano or the human voice. It moves in waves, by the compression and rarefaction of the air molecules. Once the wave reaches our ear, our brain transforms it back into a noise, a melody etc.

Now, I was thinking, how can I turn this audible signal, the wave, into a visual signal. I came up with a very simple, yet effective method: I mounted a thin plastic foil on top of the membrane of a common loud speaker. I then added hundreds of colorful, tiny crystals onto the foil. Every time now that I would play a sound through the speaker, the vibration caused by that sound will make the crystals to jump up and down, forming into these peculiar looking forms and figures you see in the images. Depending on the frequency, pitch and volume of the tone, the figures change their appearance. So now, the audible signal, the sound wave, has transformed into a visual signal, the shapes you see on the images  of „Dancing Colors“…sound has become visible.

Studio Oefner. (2017). About Fabian Oefner. [Online]. [Accessed: 20 December 2017]. Available form: http://fabianoefner.com/?portfolio=dancing-colors