Yves Scherer (CH, 1987)
Residency period: July-September 2020
I initially offered a joint project with Broderick Shoemaker, a collaboration based on the concept of the panorama. Unfortunately, due to Covid, our residency dates changed and I ended up in La Becque mostly by myself and in the autumn rather than the summer. Given that my exhibition schedule had also changed due to the pandemic, I was not able to focus my attention on the project as I would have liked, as I needed to produce works for my personal shows too. I nevertheless stayed in touch with Shoemaker to think of ways for us to keep exploring our shared field of interest individually, while also hopefully finding a format to present the outcome in a joint manner.
We decided to present our explorations and works in an online exhibition that will be hosted by my Berlin gallery under the title La Léman, referencing the lake and its status as a rich source of inspiration for many past artists and poets. I will present an existing mermaid sculpture that I photographed by the lake and a new landscape painting that I airbrushed with oil paint in my studio, based on a tree motif by Van Gogh but using the beautiful colour scheme of the Lavaux region in early autumn. Shoemaker will present framed watercolours of the lake.
Yves Scherer is a visual artist based in New York City whose work deals with questions of gender, celebrity and mediated realities. Working mainly in sculpture and installation, he creates immersive environments that combine personal narratives with fan fiction to offer the viewer an often romantic lens or perspective on the self, relationships and the everyday. His work has been shown internationally in galleries and institutions like the ICA London, Kunsthalle Basel and the Swiss Institute. He is a Swiss Art Awards recipient (2015) and was listed on Forbes’ “30 under 30 – Art & Design” class of 2017.