Erwin Wurm

Erwin Wurm is an Austrian artist, sculptor, and photographer. His body of work challenges the conventions, formalism, and permanence of sculpture. This exhibition showcases the artist’s popular One Minute Sculptures, a series which began in 1997 and has attracted international acclaim (the concept famously inspired the music video for the single “Can’t Stop” by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2002. Wurm sets up a configuration of ordinary, banal objects accompanied by instructions and illustrations demonstrating to the viewer how to pose or interact with them. One Minute Sculptures defamiliarizes viewers from notions of volume, mass, and material for sculpture through the ingenious use of the human body. The performative participation key in these series also explores concepts of paradox and absurd theatre as subject becomes object, viewer becomes the viewed, at least for a few moments.

To date, the artist has designed 115 unique positions for the One Minute Sculptures, and has maintained their careful and deliberate design since the series began 20 years ago.

Also featured in this exhibition is a knitted wall, an evolution from Wurm’s earlier work he calls “clothes sculptures.” The oversized knitted sweater, like previous executions of works from this series, creates a relationship between viewer, artwork, and architecture.

Erwin Wurm, together with Brigitte Kowanz, represented Austria in the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017.