Fons Brasser is a visual artist who uses different media: drawings, collages, sculptures and photography. Whether it concerns his drawings, collages, photos or sculptures, all of Fons Brasser's work is characterized by a scientific obsession and a clearly visible system.
This system is reinforced by working serially according to a logical order, often spread over years. In his research into surface, shape, space and size, Brasser tries to make formal structures that are in a lawful relationship to each other visually recognizable in clear images.
The field of work that Brasser has defined for himself is limited to elementary and geometric figures, with a clear preference for the square. For example, he worked for years on a series of drawn pentagons.
He drew a diagonal line from the center of one side to a corner. This line was again used as the side for a new square. Brasser's reliefs and sculptures are, as it were, accumulations of these drawn shapes. Perspective plays an important role in viewing the sculptures. A minimal shift in the viewer's line of sight produces a completely new image. Brasser's photography has developed from strict documentary photography to a more aesthetic form of photography, in which the appearance of the subject and the visual quality of the image require attention.
Fons Brasser's oeuvre occupies a unique and somewhat isolated place within contemporary Dutch photography. Like a scientific researcher, Brasser focuses on a subject.
The subject almost always relates to the history of architectural installations. From 1988 onwards, Brasser focused on photographing the interiors of Dutch water towers. The series of photos that resulted from this can be regarded as a search for the similarities and differences in the construction.
