IN THE AIR took a relaxing train ride up to Greenwich, Connecticut, on Tuesday morning, to view Urs Fischer’s new exhibition at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, “Oscar the Grouch.” After a quick shuttle ride to the estate, the center’s perky, likable director Allison Brant took invited guests through the show, which includes a miniature replica of the center, shining steel sculptures with finely-detailed photographic overlays (like those seen at the artist’s recent New Museum show), and his gigantic hole in the ground, You, from 2007. After being reeled by the tremendous, surrealistic installation, IN THE AIR asked Fischer how he felt his latest show compared to his New Museum exhibition (which was reported to cost $330,000 to create in that SANAA-designed building). Did Brant’s polo grounds just outside the door add a needed note of tranquility to the aesthetic experience?
Fischer shrugged. “I like this better,” he said, clad in a parka that still managed to reveal the extensive tattoos on the back of his neck. “The building is not crap. Everything you put in the New Museum looks thin. It takes the shine out of every thing. I like this better. I’m usually not happy, but I’m happy now.”
As they say in polo, Greenwich: 1, the Bowery: 0.
