Normally, when visiting a public art gallery, you would not expect to be easily persuaded to plug your nostrils with pencils or to plunge your head into a rubbish bin. Yet somehow, Erwin Wurm’s One Minute Sculptures (1997) encourage viewing audiences to do just that. When attending the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) exhibition, Sculpture is Everything (2012), you very quickly discover that sculpture as an artistic genre continues to be reinterpreted. While showcasing a diverse range of artistic talent, both national and international, a prevalent artistic theme within Sculpture is Everything is the ability of the artists to convey their sense of humour. Erwin Wurm is one such artist whose artistic humour and sculptural innovation have proved irresistible to audiences. Through the integration of humans and everyday objects, Wurm prompts audiences to question the very definition of sculpture and the extent to which art and everyday life have become interchangeable. Erwin Wurm’s One Minute Sculptures portray humans in dialogue with the materials of everyday existence. Previously named ‘grandson of the surrealists’,1 Wurm focuses largely on readymade objects by offering a uniquely humorous approach to formalism. As an emerging artist who struggled financially and found it hard to get artistic materials, Wurm worked largely with mixed media such as wood, metal, clothing, office stationery, cans and buckets. His series is so named because all of his human-sculptures are ephemeral. Through photographic and video documentation of all successful, unsuccessful and rehearsal attempts of his sculptural choreography, Wurm has merged participants and commonplace objects to form absurd and awkward positions. His sculptural participants must successfully hold their position until they become bored, or the placement of the objects becomes too precarious for... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
Erwin Wurm, One minute sculptures, 1997. DVD: 47 minutes, colour, stereo. Purchased 2003. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant.
