To celebrate Hanukkah this year, The Jewish Museum will present Bubble-abrum, an illuminated sculpture exhibition of three works by R. M. Fischer. These works, from the artist’s “Bubble World” series, will be installed in unexpected locations inside the Museum and remain on view from December 2, 1999 through January 2, 2000. Bubble-abrum is a reference to candelabrum as the ritual lights used for the celebration of Hanukkah. This installation will constitute a non-traditional, conceptual means of marking the eight-night holiday. Hanukkah begins at sundown on Friday, December 3 and ends at sundown on Saturday, December 11.

Fischer’s “Bubble World” sculptures are constructed from polyethylene spheres which are clustered together in an illuminated hybrid using brass, steel, and electric lights. Each forms an incandescent and evocative work, imbued with a spiritual sensibility in its unusual juxtaposition of found forms. The assemblages on view employ globes similar to those that mark the entrances of New York City subway stations, consisting of as many as 14 plastic globes lit from within. For the most part white in color, with occasional interruptions of red, they resemble massive bubbles and exude a celebratory air. Exquisitely finished and polished, almost like jewelry, the brass fittings make the sculptures look vaguely Victorian. The pieces are human scale, up to 6 feet tall, which adds to their anthropomorphic nature. A recent review in Art in America said “R.M. Fischer combines odd electrical, plumbing and industrial findings into functional sculptures, most often lamps, which, in his hands, transcend their banal origins. While decidedly abstract, they also exhibit subtle robotlike qualities and are simulataneously futuristic and nostalgic.”

Fisher’s works are in the permanent collection of The Jewish Museum as well as many other major museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York; The Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Texas; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri; The Carnegie Museum of Fine Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the University of Nebraska Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, Lincoln, Nebraska; and Fundacao De Serralves Foundation in Oproto, Portugal.

In his monumental site-specific public art commissions, Fischer often employs lighting elements. They function as iconographic timepieces and are identified by their unusual incorporation of high tech industrial materials. He is also known for his public sculptures including “Rector Gate,” in Battery Park City, New York; the “State House Clock,” in Boston; “MacArthur Park Gates” in Los Angeles; the Sport Stacks,” at the Cleveland Arena Complex in Cleveland, Ohio; and the “Kansas City Sky Stations,” in Kansas City, Missouri, a heralded signature sculpture for that city.