Fabian Oefner is a Swiss artist whose work sits between photography, sculpture and science. His Heisenberg Objects, first shown in 2021, are everyday machines that have been cast in resin, sliced into thin sections and then put back together with gaps between the slices, so that the inside of each object is visible.
What the objects are
Oefner chose objects that record or measure something: a camera, a tape recorder and a black box, which store sound and images; a clock, which keeps time; and a trainer, which tracks movement. Cut open, each one becomes a record of how it was made.
The series is named after Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. Taking the objects apart shows how a new view of something ordinary can reveal information that was hidden inside it.
How they were made
Each object was cast in resin, which was processed in vacuum and pressure chambers. Once set, the block was sliced, and each slice was sanded and polished before the pieces were reassembled in their original order.
The process also revealed things. Inside the camera, Oefner found a note left by the engineer who built it, about the precision of the shutter. He has compared the work to a kind of modern archaeology.
Newer work
Since Heisenberg Objects, Oefner has continued to take apart and reconstruct objects. His Volumen series, from 2024 and 2025, and his Spatial Books are shown on his website.
The essentials
- Artist: Fabian Oefner, Switzerland
- Series: Heisenberg Objects, 2021
- Objects: camera, tape recorder, black box, clock and trainer
- Method: resin casting, slicing, polishing and reassembly
- Website: fabianoefner.com