For those of you who think that drawing is a two-dimensional affair, then think again. Without any complex technical interventions, artist Stefan Saffer manages to lift his drawings from the page and turn them into windows, shadows or, in his words, “visual strainers”. How does he do it? The tools the Berlin- and New York-based artist uses are simple: paper, penknife and light.
Delicate, glowing structures hang a few centimeters from the gallery wall. For Saffer drawing is a process that takes place in three stages: a drawing on paper with paint or pencil, shaping and cutting out this drawing with a penknife and creating a play of shadows on the gallery wall. Some forms seem incredibly fragile—like constellations or delicate webs—but their color, both on the back and front of the paper, gives them a robust, radiating aura. Others are made of pure script that could be superimposed on an appropriate scene or location—a mental and visual viewfinder through the everyday.
Saffer is clearly inspired by architecture and an almost nostalgic 1950s or 1960s sense of design. No wonder, since his parallel interest is “Architecture and Public Art”, and he has an impressive resumé of research fellowships in these fields at institutions such as the Bauhaus Kolleg in Dessau and the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York. “Most of my work follows various rules of statics and construction, which you can find in architecture. My dream is to design a whole façade made from laser cuts in cooperation with an architecture/design team.”
For now his works on paper are developing in the direction of cuts and folds, and he continues to pursue public commissions. Why he keeps returning to the medium of paper is not only its improvisational quality but also an accessibility offered by a medium that started as a folk art tradition. “Using this technique opens my art up to a broader audience that does not only come from contemporary art. I feel this is important from a political standpoint, and I also get a lot of pleasure from the fresh feedback on my work.”
For a look at Saffer’s full range of paper cuts and projects see: http://www.stefansaffer.com
