Elizabeth Fischer

Individual

Roles

Artist, Author, Musician, Writer

Biography

Elizabeth Fischer was a multi-media artist. She first ventured into the Vancouver arts scene by running light shows for rock bands during the psychedelic era, and then progressed into leading her own bands via punk. The Animal Slaves were an anomaly during the days of D.O.A. and the Subhumans, featuring as they did actual musicians playing morbidly intricate tunes behind Fischer's complex and poetic lyrics; DarkBlueWorld fused rock energy with improv jazz, again by way of a rotating cast of A-list players, including Tony Wilson, Cole Schmidt, Skye Brooks, and Pete Schmitt. Fischer also painted marvellous if not always flattering portraits of her friends, often in acidic greens and yellows; made several memorable LPs and CDs; fought against persecution of the Roma in her native Hungary; and, more secretly, was a quietly spectacular knitter, whose crocheted "baldguy caps," were fetish objects for those lucky enough to own them. She authored the book, Orphans and Dogs (UNIT/PITT & Publication Studies, 2015), a gallery-related composite of her unfiltered and unapologetic writing, her digital illustrations, and her translation of Humorom by Attila Balogh, a Hungarian Roma poet who appeared on the Hungarian literary scene in the 1970s. The book was published in conjunction with a 30-year retrospective exhibit with the same name in June and July 2015 at the UNIT/PITT Gallery. In October of 2015, Elizabeth Fischer, at age 68, opted to end her life in Zurich with a legally assisted suicide rather than endure the pain, indignity, and burdening of others that would have ensued if she had chosen to stay alive a bit longer with stage 4 lung cancer.

Adapted from ABC Bookworld, 2015

Collection

grunt gallery Programming Archive (Artist)

Related programs

Vancouver Performance Art Series (Artist)
Stand-Up Tragedy (Artist)
Return of the Metal Queens (Artist)
Computer Works (Artist)
Murder Museum (Artist)
Madness and Civilization (Artist)
Vancouver Performance Poets (Artist)
Post POP for Now People (Artist)

Related Archive, Library & Publication Objects

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