All posts by Walter Wetter

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Interview über mich im “Magnaze Magazine”

Siehe: https://www.magnaze.com/post/walter-wetter-a-multidisciplinary-artist

I got to meet Mr. Wetter through his art, when I stepped into one of his exhibitions which was hosted in the Trace Gallery in Zurich, Switzerland. What attracted me to his installations was the fact that he used a variety of materials and techniques, immediately radiating the idea that there is a great imagination and mastery behind all this. While observing his art, the eye of the visitor feasts on details and the mind immediately starts drifting away in other places and times, romantic even darker ones.

Some years later, I contacted him, and he was more than kind enough to give me the following interview, which definitely gives insight into his talent and the things that inspire him.  

Dear Mr. Wetter, please tell us some things about yourself and what you do

My parents had a bigger toystore in the canton of Thurgau where I grew up, nothing better can happen to a child! This gave me all kinds of opportunities to discover and try out new toys. This caused an enormous boost of fantasy. There were so many different toys that one was fascinated by and one could keep dreaming. This certainly influenced me a lot. Of course there were other influences later on, which then became apparent in art. Music is definitely one of them, in the 80’s I played as a DJ in Zurich and Basel in well known New Wave/Gothic Clubs, this certainly influenced my current artistic expression, but also my way of thinking. Because at that time this music was really subversive and still “underground” and one also carried an attitude to oneself, in the sense of “fuck off” just not being mainstream. So I looked for a profession that had something to do with music or sound. So I ended up as a sound operator at the Swiss Television SRF and I am still 80% employed there in the post production department as “Senior Audio Editor”. The rest of the time I spend on making art. That means developing light objects, creating art installations, exchanging artist-trading-cards, developing assemblages and collages, visiting flea markets (worldwide) and scrap yards.

Assemblage:

You are working with various materials, amongst other things you are using metal elements, industrial and electronic scrap, laboratory, medical and pharmaceutical items. By combining them with high-tech components you create new sculptures and give them a totally new meaning, a new purpose. Is it a statement that nothing really dies, it only waits to be a part of something else and live forever?

For a long time I was a frequent visitor to an industrial scrap yard in Zurich, you got a visitor’s pass there and then you could enter the site, which was as big as two football fields. Unbelievable what there was to discover there! But also unbelievable what was thrown away! Of course a lot of things will be recycled. For example, there were mountains of computer boards several meters high, computer screens still wrapped, several containers with various types of metal parts, airplane parts, engine parts and everything meters high. For me it was a paradise! Since I am more of a visual person, I chose the most beautiful shapes and metal parts to use for sculptures, light objects or installations. But these forms and metal parts also had an original function, as something, perhaps still recognizable, I now tear them out of their context and use them in a new way, for example for a light object and thereby give them a new life, a new function. I am more concerned with this misappropriation.

Assemblage:

What are your selection criteria before obtaining an object for your sculptures and your creations in general? What “guides” you to buy something from the flea market or search amongst ruins / old stuff till you find what you need? Do you have a concept in mind and then try to find the necessary pieces, like constructing an imaginary puzzle in a way?

I take a more emotional approach when I see or search for something. The object must radiate something, must appeal to me, this can be an old portrait photo, a metal form, an antique picture frame, an old radio etc. All this is collected in my studio and results in a larger pool from which I can choose for a future work of art. Accordingly, my studio looks more like a warehouse, with its own workspace, of course.

Lesilo:

In many creations of yours, you focus on the human eye, making it stand out from the rest of the human body. Is there a symbolism behind this choice?

Not really. I am fascinated by old medical books in which the body is visualized in an ancient way. In general, I am interested in many antique medical things. At that time one had a different medical knowledge about the body or a therapy, also partly a wrong one. Through this one discovers that human knowledge was never free of errors. Eyes are of course a strong means of expression, one sees into the soul, so to speak, into the soul of the work of art. 

Are you working on anything new at this time? Any exhibitions on the way?

At the moment I am mostly busy with my assemblages / collages. They consist of antique picture frames, equipped for example with antique photos, old jewelry, emblems, antique medicine books, body supplements, but also with graphics froma strology / astronomy / space / laboratory science / alchemy / medicine etc. I put this into context as a kind of collage, so that when you look at the assemblage you start to think about what it is all about, a kind of “lynchesque” story. My next exhibition will take place in Frauenfeld/Thurgau, October 23,2020, together with the Kunstthurgau Group (https://www.kunstthurgau.ch/ausstellungen/knochen/)

Lichtobjekt:

If you were to make a structure representing Hope, which material would you use? And why?

Hmm….it would not be the material I would choose to present “Hope”, but the choice would be in the emotion of me towards the material. 

What is your motto? What keeps you going?

I don’t really have a concrete motto. But the world, the universe is something so fascinating, complex, still inscrutable, it is worth to continue to question.

Trace Gallery Zurich:

Anything you would like to add?

I think a part of my art practice belongs to the direction of”Outsider Art”, maybe even to “Lowbrow Art”, which is quite popular in the USA at the moment.

Maybe my websites for those interested in art:

www.darkstarproduction.ch

www.lesilo.ch

https://www.artist-trading-cards.ch/atc-travel-archive/walter-wetter-aka-voodoo/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/walterwetter_industrialart/?hl=de

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walterwetterindustrialart

Shop

Assemblagen/Collagen

Walter Wetter`s Assemblages and Collages are made with antique frames. These antique frames I have found on my worldwide travel trips at flea markets. Sometimes the old original photo is used for the graphic layer. These graphic layers are made from old astronomy/medicine/space travel/alchemy/physics and other books. Sometimes inside the assemblage, you will see some old or new jewellery; these are most of the time connected to the graphic or to the photo. If you carefully study the inside theme, you will see a lynchesque story.

All assemblages and collages are unique. Each one only exist once.

Please E-mail me if you are interested to buy one or more assemblage or collage.

voodoo1@bluewin.ch

Assemblage 01 – Size 10cm x 10cm – Ivory frame – Mixed media – Price 300.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 02 SOLD – Size 15cm x 11cm – Metal frame – Mixed media – Price 250.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 03 – Size 9.5cm x 13cm – Metal frame – Mixed media – Price 250.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 04 SOLD – Size 7.5cm x 10cm – Metal frame – Mixed media – Price 250.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 05 SOLD – Size 9.5cm x 12cm – Metal/Plastic frame – Mixed media – Price 250.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 06 – Diameter 13cm – Plastic frame – Mixed media – Price 250.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 07 – Diameter 13cm – Plastic frame – Mixed media – Price 250.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 08 – Size 15cm x 11cm – Metal frame – Mixed media – Price 250.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 09 – Size 13cm x 7cm – Metal frame/Glass – Collage – Price 300.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 10 – Size 15cm x 11cm – Metal frame – Collage – Price 250.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 11 – Size 20cm x 14cm – Metal frame – Collage – Price 250.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 12 – Size 15cm x 8.5cm – Wood frame – Collage – Price 200.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 13 – Size 15.5cm x 11.5cm – Metal frame – Collage – Price 200.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 14 – Size 15.5cm x 10.5cm – Metal frame – Mixed media – Price 250.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 15 – Size 14cm x 9cm – Metal frame – Mixed media – Price 250.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 16 – Size 16cm x 8cm – Wood frame – Collage – Price 150.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 17 – Size 10cm x 7cm – Metal frame – Collage – Price 150.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 18 – Size 13cm x 9cm – Metal frame – Mixed media – Price 250.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 19 – Size 14cm x 11cm – Plastic frame – Collage – Price 200.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 20 – Size 18cm x 14cm – Wood frame – Mixed media – Price 250.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 21 – Size 9cm x 8cm – Ambrotypie/Daguerreotypie – Collage – Price 300.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 22 – Size 19.5cm x 14.5cm – Metal frame – Mixed media – Price 350.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 23 – Size 25cm x 11cm – wooden cassette for antique wooden camera – Mixed media – Price 300.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 24 – Size 24cm x 18cm – Wood frame with ivory – Collage – Price 300.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 25 – Size 24cm x 19cm – Plastic frame – Mixed media – Price 350.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 26 – Size 16.5cm x 14.5cm – Metal frame – Collage – Price 200.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 27 – Size 38cm x 16cm – wooden cassette for antique wooden camera – Mixed media – Price 350.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 28 – Size 22cm x 17.5cm – Plastic frame – Mixed media – Price 350.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 29 – Size 24cm x 19cm – Plastic frame – Mixed media – Price 350.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 30 – Size 29cm x 18cm – Metal frame – Mixed media – Price 350.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 31 – Size 40cm x 24cm – No frame – Mixed media – Price 1100.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 32 – Size 40cm x 25cm – Brass frame – Mixed media – Price 1500.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 33 – Size 40cm x 29cm – Metal frame – Mixed media – Price 600.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 34 – Size 44cm x 17cm – Metal frame – Mixed media – Price 400.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage
Assemblage 35 – Size 42cm x 30cm – Metal frame – Mixed media – Price 900.-Swiss Franc / excluding postage