Honesty
Stone looks like stone. Steel keeps its fire scale. Construction is expressed, never dressed up.
The maker
Hands rememberwhat time forgets.
Nathan Fischer works across stone and steel, bringing structural knowledge and a sculptor's eye to things made for ordinary daily use.
One practice
Builder, maker,student of material.
The work sits somewhere between architecture and sculpture. It starts with close attention: how water moves across a site, where a wall meets the ground, where a hand reaches for a latch, what a piece will look like after ten winters outside.
The Renaissance workshops did not separate the artist from the engineer from the builder. One person drew it, one person made it and one person answered for it. That is still the arrangement here.
In his own words
Passionateabout stone.
I can't tell people enough how passionate I am about stone.
As a teenager I was surrounded by stone. My parents' property was covered in thousands of coffee rocks, very common for that area. So my father and I set to work and built many dry stone walls, and even a castle jump for my horse.
I liked to explore the surrounding country on horseback and discovered many long abandoned stone structures, most in chronic disrepair. It fascinated me. I'd wonder about the who and the why and the when of them.
I attended a great agricultural college built in stone by the famous Catholic priest, architect and stonemason Monsignor John Hawes. The magnitude of that school left me in awe of stonemasonry and had a huge impact on me.
One of the most exciting parts of the work is the search for stone. Aesthetically, it is what governs the creative boundaries of what I do. There is little more satisfying than finding a stone that has been passed over for years, or even decades, calling the bobcat over and loading it into the ute. It is a privilege to work that stone and place it in a wall, so it can be appreciated by everyone who passes by.
I remember a friend I hadn't seen for years calling in at home. He walked past my garden wall and said, "nice star". Now I didn't knowingly place that star in the wall, and to be honest I hadn't seen it before then, but there it was, shining plain to see. Stone is just like that. It holds on to its secrets and always leaves a little more to discover.
Nathan Fischer
What guides the work
Old principles.Living materials.
Proportion
Every opening, curve and joint is tuned to the human body and to the building around it.
Permanence
Work is made to age with dignity, gather patina and still be useful long after the fashion for it has passed.
The stone already holds the shape. The work is learning how to let it out.
Nathan Fischer