A glossy, candidly coloured chimaera of animals watching and waiting for visitors is the signature motif of Nuri Koerfer’s work. Her social sculptures manifest ideas of language through semiotic structures that give life to the symbols, gestures, and materials she uses. This corporal gesture is equal to any text that could be spoken or written with regard to her intentions – which is why she uses the animal motif to carry an unsaid connection point between herself and the viewers. Offering them a space to sit, lie down, and reflect inside her creation is the ultimate gesture of both vulnerability and sentiment. This is not often found between the art object and its onlooker, although this hospitality can be frequently found in natural landscapes like a moss soaked forest bed or a sunlit beach.

The artist’s gesture of affinity also brings up recent theories surrounding the interspecies entanglement ideology, which is most famously attributed to the theorist Donna Haraway. Her mantra, “making kin, not babies”, is often quoted. Koerfer’s work allows the viewer reflection whilst immersed in both the outside world and their own contextual drift. Turning the viewer into both the performer and the spectator, she offers them a panorama and a vantage point. This structure is the root of her practice destabilising our guidelines of viewing. Telling you to touch and feel, rather than watch stoically. The animal form finds a moment of nostalgic sweetness in our minds which she manoeuvres successfully and swiftly to allow for new models of immersive contemplation.

Insel Nr.3, 2019
Styrofoam, papier-mâché, resin, 180 x 109 x 85 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Lars Friedrich, Berlin

Thron (camel, elephant), 2020
Styrofoam, papier-mâché, resin, 150 x 95 x 100 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Lars Friedrich, Berlin

Over Spiraling (blue), 2021
Styrofoam, papier-mâché, resin, 64 x 85 x 63 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Lars Friedrich, Berlin

Dogends (light brown), 2019
Styrofoam, papier-mâché, resin, 108 x 32 x 30 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Lars Friedrich, Berlin

Lama Thron, 2020
Styrofoam, papier-mâché, resin, 95 x 150 x 100 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Lars Friedrich, Berlin

Worm (brown), 2020
Styrofoam, papier-mâché, resin, 75 x 90 x 85 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Lars Friedrich, Berlin

Der Bote (dragonflys), 2019
Styrofoam, papier-mâché, resin, 105 x 90 x 76 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Lars Friedrich, Berlin

With the support of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia