“Fritz
Haeg takes the already idealized body images of male and female runway models
and exaggerates them. These icons of immortality are shipped to the gallery
in a crate especially designed to function as a viewing bench. In the ‘Esther
& Alex Suite’ each painting is made with reflective particles that
seem to hover over the surface like shimmering molecules. Haeg is drawn to the
mico-elements that make up an entirety; cells that make up a body, bodies that
that make up a community and so on, to a galactic level. Depending on the angle,
the image of a woman is emerging out of a wooden panel as if she is an apparition,
or she is full, voluptuous form, firmly holding place, or she becomes a rotting
corpse, or she is not there at all. The multi-images within reach of Haeg’s
paintings create a broad range of emotional impact reinforcing the simultaneous
obsession with and detestation for the self that contemporary culture constantly
pumps out. When looking at ‘The Esther & Alex Suite’ one recognizes
that these are famous models but no one can name them, we do not know their
personal history, they don’t even have public personae for us to build
myths around. Ultimately, Haeg’s paintings leave us with a haunting sense
of mortality.”
- by curator Mari Spirito for the exhibition catalog
‘Them’ at Voxopolis, Philadelphia, PA, 01.08.99