Benedikt Fischer, Deuce, 2024, Wool, Merino, Cotton, Glass. Photo courtesy of the artist

Opening event: 12.03, Wed 16:00-20:00
Breakfast at The Tiger Room: 15.03, Sat 11:00-13:00
Event duration: 13-15.03.2025, Thu-Sat 14:00-19:00

The Tiger Room Gallery is set to present a dedicated exhibition showcasing the jewellery and objects of Benedikt Fischer, with particular attention to his ongoing collaboration with Rudy de Gruyl. Spanning works from Fischer’s graduation at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy to his most recent creations, the exhibition offers a compelling mid-career survey of his practice.

Fischer’s approach to jewellery-making is deeply rooted in transformation and reinterpretation. His process often begins with materials that already carry inherent meaning, which he then seeks to recontextualise as jewellery. An example for this is his tennis ball necklace. Here, the ball is cut along its white line, peeled from its rubber core using a scalpel, and then sewn together with wool before being filled. Although the sheep wool used to make the tennis ball has already undergone significant modification—having been dyed, felted, and shaped—Fischer introduces an additional layer of transformation. His work thus navigates the interplay between nature and culture, a theme that resonates with his personal history of growing up in the countryside before relocating to an urban environment.

Beyond his own work, Fischer is also invested in the role of craft as a conduit for collaboration and social connection. A particular highlight of the exhibition is his collaboration with Rudy de Gruyl, a painter and philosopher working at the Outsider Art Gallery in Amsterdam. Their five-year collaboration is marked by a shared appreciation for adornment. De Gruyl, who is neurodivergent, brings a direct and uninhibited approach to their creative process. Rudy often picks up a brush and simply begins to paint, letting the work unfold naturally without knowing where it will go. By drawing on traditions that celebrate everyday artistry, their work is advocating for adornment as a universally accessible form of creative engagement.

This exhibition at The Tiger Room not only highlights Fischer’s artistic trajectory but also underscores the transformative power of collaboration in contemporary jewellery practice.