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About Matthias Weischer and his art

Text written by Patricia Ellis

Matthias Weischer’s paintings use architecture as a central theme to explore the possibilities of spatial illusion. His elaborate depictions of interiors are pure invention based in a quiet subversion of logic. Obsessive patterning, incongruous perspective and embellishment of off- kilter positioning are used to create psychological tension. Through the banality of design, Weischer presents a state of contemporary consciousness where model living is reflected as both desire and anxiety.

Matthias Weischer’s rich surfaces contrast geometric fields of hard-edged abstraction with highly rendered decorative details to create an eerie play between flatness and 3D. Starting with a blueprint of an empty room, Matthias Weischer builds his imagined locations layer upon layer, each added element further pushing the boundaries of perceived space. Dizzying repetitive motifs and Escher-like visual riddles nimbly allude to a sense of the uncanny. Suburban normality is infiltrated by an almost unnoticeable surrealism; floors become tabletops, flat-pack furniture is impossibly two-dimensional, and shadows are conspicuous either by their absence, or their absurd shapes and angles. Monotony is presented as a perpetual labyrinth of contemplative wonder.

Each canvas exposes the making of its improbable construction. Following underlying grids reminiscent of virtual reality, Matthias Weischer rigidly maps out the structure of fantasy. Never populated, his interiors give no hint of narrative; their décor is unplaceable in fashion timeline, and there are no clues to their inhabitants’ personalities. Instead, they operate as blank showrooms for the viewer’s projection, blurring the boundaries between public and private, individual and communal experience.

For Matthias Weischer, representation becomes a precarious consequence of abstraction; the gravity of each scene constantly flits in and out of focus in subliminal optical illusion. Imagining each location as an installation, Weischer uses painting to realise its image. Veering in style from tidy formalism to expressionistic gesture, he heightens the element of mystery. For Matthias Weischer, space is a conceptual enigma; painting becomes the realm of its capricious realisation.

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