Fabian Oefner blends art and science to create photographic works that appeal to both the heart and the mind. The Swiss artist has found innovative ways of capturing moments and phenomena that are invisible to the human eye. He photographed the movement of coloured crystals placed near a speaker to capture the transmission of sound waves, and used paint to highlight the patterns formed by the movement of magnetic ferro-fluids in a magnetic field. He has also created stunning images of phenomena such as centripetal forces, iridescence and fire.
“I am inspired and influenced by the world around me, and have a deep interest in all fields of science. When I start on a new subject, I never know how the final images will look, but I keep experimenting until an idea develops. My aim is to show these phenomena in a poetic way, to make viewers pause for a moment and appreciate the magic that constantly surrounds us,” Oefner says.
In 2013, the artist began working on a series titled “Disintegrating”, which is different from his other work because it captures moments that do not even exist. The series features photographs of cars that seem to be exploding; but this is an illusion that the artist has carefully constructed by painstakingly deconstructing scale models of the cars and photographing each component in a very specific position. While his scientific approach is evident in the intricate mechanical details of the cars, down to every tiny nut and bolt, the sight of the explosion and the notion of it has a strong emotional impact.
Art lovers and car enthusiasts in the UAE can view works from the second part of this series, “Disintegrating II”, at MB&F M.A.D. Gallery Dubai, the region’s first gallery dedicated to mechanical art. The series includes exploded views of five iconic sports cars — a 1957 Maserati 250F, a Bugatti 57 SC from the late 1930s, a 1982 Porsche 956, a 1969 Ford GT40 and an Auto Union Type C from the mid-1930s.
“Photography usually captures moments in time; but this series is all about inventing a moment in time. What you see in these images is a moment that never existed in real life. What looks like a car falling apart is in fact something that has been artificially created by blending thousands of images together. It is a unique pleasure for me to build such a moment and then freeze it in time,” Oefner says.
The process by which the artist created these mind-boggling images is complex and time-consuming. He began by buying and thoroughly studying detailed scale models of the cars. The next step was to make a sketch on paper illustrating the position of each individual part in an imaginary explosion. He then took the model cars apart piece by piece, from the body shell right down to the miniscule screws, and photographed each part.
Each car was made up of more than a thousand components, and Oefner had to use fine needles and pieces of string to place each of these components individually in the positions marked on his sketches. He then meticulously worked out the angle of each shot and the right lighting to photograph every component. He took more than 2,000 pictures, and all these individual photographs were then blended together to create a single image. Using the wheels as a reference point, each part was masked in Photoshop, cut and then pasted into the final image.
“These are possibly the slowest high-speed images ever captured. It took me more than two months to create an image that looks as if it was captured in a fraction of a second. The whole disassembly in itself took more than a day for each car due to the complexity of the models. But I enjoyed the analytical process of discovering something by taking it apart. Actually, for me the most difficult and frustrating part was setting up the camera, lens and light, because the main aim of this entire effort was to get a beautiful image out of it,” the artist says.
Oefner has deliberately made the images look like computer generated renderings rather than real photographs. “I have always been fascinated by the clean, crisp looks of 3D renderings, so I tried to use that type of aesthetic and combine it with the strength of real photography,” he says.
The Zurich-based artist was born in 1984. He got interested in photography at the age of 14 after seeing Harold Edgerton’s famous photograph of a bullet piercing an apple. He studied product design at university, and began his career at German company Leica, where his job was to take photographs of the optical devices manufactured by the company. Later, he taught himself how to build low cost high-speed flashes, and tested them by taking pictures of everyday objects in unusual scenarios, such as capturing the precise millisecond when a projectile fired from an air gun, pierced a can. The desire to build his own moment in time turned his attention to cars, and to creating illusions of explosions, which caught the attention of Maximilian Büsser, founder and curator of M.A.D. gallery.
Büsser is a watchmaker who gave up a successful career in the watch industry to start MB&F, a Geneva-based company where he brings together talented horological artisans and professionals to design and craft a radical horological masterpiece every year. He opened the first M.A.D. Gallery (the name stands for Mechanical Art Devices) in 2011 in Geneva to promote the work of artists creating mechanical and kinetic art, who usually work on their own and have no platforms such as art galleries or art fairs to showcase their work. The Dubai branch of the gallery opened last year and presents unique works by talented artists from around the world.
“Fabian Oefner’s works are perfect examples of how mechanical art can be powerfully beautiful. Seeing objects we are so familiar with breaking down into hundreds of pieces challenges the viewer’s perception of these items. ‘Disintegrating II’ truly encapsulates M.A.D. Gallery’s concept of celebrating the art of mechanics,” Büsser says.
Jyoti Kalsi is an arts-enthusiast based in Dubai.
“Disintegrating II” is on display at M.A.D. Gallery Dubai, Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz, until September 15.
