Twelve thousand strips of shredded paper are neatly laid to form an image. Crayons are arranged like missiles in a 20”x20” pegboard to resemble an elderly man’s somber countenance. At face value, the work of artist and physicist Christian Faur is obviously complex. But at face value, you’re not even scratching the surface.

In 2007, Christian’s crayon paintings hung on the walls of Sherrie Gallerie. Visitors were amazed by the abilities of the relatable medium; when viewed from a distance, the crayons created the appearance of a pixilated photograph. The subject matter seemed nostalgic but sorrowful: a scowling boy, a lonesome tree, an abandoned water tower. The show was so popular that owner Sherrie Hawk is bringing Christian’s crayon paintings back. Sherrie says, “I have been eagerly waiting to see what he has been up to since our last show. I try to exhibit great artists like Christian every two years in order to follow his career, ideas, and new pieces.”

The subject matters in Christian’s new works are ‘forgotten children.’ Each piece is assembled using a myriad of black, gray, and white crayons interspersed with segmented rows of colored crayons. Each image is titled ‘Girl’ or ‘Boy.’ The tightly framed faces of children, many with downcast eyes, evoke pity, guilt, and serenity. Christian says that he blurs the images to suggest fading childhood memories. But why the blips of color?

Christian is obsessed with sequence. From technological codes to DNA codes, you’ll find numbers and algebraic symbols in every one of his works. He’s even created a color alphabet where each letter of the alphabet corresponds with a specific tonal shade. It’s akin to the work of a synaesthetic mind. By ‘reading’ Christian’s crayon paintings, you’ll discover the names of hundreds of children within each panel. Christian has put the same principal to work translating philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Remarks on Colour and creating a bright formal jacket, the ‘Mating Jacket,’ that, when read, reveals pick up lines and macho slogans.

In addition to his crayon installation, Christian will be bringing to Sherrie Gallerie encaustic pangrams, which he also created using his color alphabet. A pangram is a sentence that contains every letter of the alphabet: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. Underneath the ten to fifteen layers of paint and encaustic wax used in each of these pangramic pieces are mathematical proofs that Christian says are “almost too beautiful to paint over.” These numbers have great significance. Christian sees them as representatives of a lost innocence in exchange for knowledge. He often uses prime numbers, saying, “I love the idea that there is an infinite set of occurrences in our lives that exists along a continuum. In reality, we are only affected occasionally by prime events that stand out in our memory and shape our existence.” Christian, a very philosophical man, believes that math and science are the closest thing mankind will accept as universal absolute truth.

Another of Christian's works appearing at Sherrie Gallerie is ‘Just Paper,’ a collage of 12,000 shredded strips of paper, layered like feathers on a bird to create an image of the US Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay. Look harder, and you’ll find that the strips of paper are lines from the US Constitution with certain words set in different fonts for extra emphasis.

In his online artist statement, Christian says, “The things that inspire me to create, I find, are buried deep within the structures and systems that form the underpinning of our natural world…These invisible layers…underlying rules and laws that govern the physical world.” Christian’s fascination with ‘invisible underpinnings’ seems to have inspired him to create his own mysteries. Diving into these works is addicting. Each discovery leaves you craving the unveiling of a new discovery, realizing that you’ve only scratched the surface.

Christian Faur’s work will be on display at Sherrie Gallerie from January 18-February 28.

by Morgan Baughman

photos courtesy sherriegallerie.com

homepage photo: Christian Faur wearing Mating Jacket and standing in front of Just Paper

Sherrie Gallerie -694 N High St - 614.221.8580

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