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| The exhibition, "Erwin Wurm: Sculpture is Everywhere," at the Suwon Museum of Art in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, is the Austrian sculptor's largest solo exhibition ever held in Korea. Courtesy of Suwon Museum of Art |
By Park Han-sol
An absurdly bulbous convertible the shape of which is the opposite of everything that the automobile industry wants its products to be. An 11-meter-long sweater that was once hung in a cathedral in Vienna as the oversized "replica" of a purple veil traditionally used to cover images of Jesus during the penitential season of Lent.
Austrian sculptor Erwin Wurm, the artist behind both projects, has been adding a whimsical touch to his mundane subjects, freely morphing their forms and sizes, for his creative endeavors for nearly four decades.
The scope of his sculptural subjects is as comprehensive as it can be; they include not only physical items and human bodies, but also the intangible, such as a performer's action and time itself.
Everything in the world has the potential of becoming one of his creative ingredients ― hence the title of his largest solo exhibition ever held in Korea, "Erwin Wurm: Sculpture is Everywhere."
A curated selection of 61 sculptures, photographs, videos and paintings has been brought to the Suwon Museum of Art in Gyeonggi Province in a way that visualizes Wurm's multi-layered definition and conception of "sculptures."
All of the artist's works, while superficially lighthearted and farcical, represent his veiled critique of contemporary culture ― from materialism and obesity to religious hypocrisy.
"From L to XXL in 8 Days" (1993) on view marked his earlier foray into looking at the human body as part of the sculpture. The humorous text provides visitors with detailed instructions on how to gain ― not lose ― extra pounds in the quickest way possible through high-calorie foods and little to no physical movement.
"What we do every day by eating, gaining and losing weight, that's the first experience with sculpture that we have," Wurm once remarked.
Such a unique focus on the idea of volume and size further expanded into his "Fat Car" series eight years later, where he plumped up convertibles instead of bodies.
By transforming sleek automobiles ― a capitalist symbol of wealth and power ― into grossly obese creatures, he offers a playful criticism of our materialistic value system, where we are pressured into staying thin but constantly wanting bigger, better things in life.
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| An installation view of "Erwin Wurm: Sculpture is Everywhere" / Courtesy of Suwon Museum of Art |
The exhibition also offers a chance to witness the Austrian artist's attempt to push the boundaries of sculpture by redefining it as a "performative action" rather than simply static objects.
"One Minute Sculpture," which brought the sculptor global acclaim in the late 1990s, is a series consisting of simple written or pictorial instructions and everyday objects like chairs, buckets and fruit. But that's not all, of course.
In fact, it is the pose struck by participants ― anonymous viewers, models and even the artist himself ― that activates the work. Sometimes, they are told to balance a bucket on their head or a chair on their eye. At other times, they must try sitting still on an impossibly thin and high pole.
The "sculptures" here are the ridiculous and challenging choreography that the performers are required to bring to life for a brief moment before they collapse due to gravity. Both participatory and temporal elements are what complete his art.
"Sculpture is Everywhere" runs through March 19 at the Suwon Museum of Art.
