Austrian Artist Erwin Wurm was born in 1954. He studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna and the Academy of Fine Arts in Austria.
Worm works with a mix of sculptures and performance art.
An ongoing project of his is “One minute sculptures“ for which the artist or other ordinary people interacted with everyday items such as pencils, chairs or boxes. These interactions where then photographed. For this project Wurm also works with museums, he placed several white pedestals within rooms of other artwork. These had items like cleaning supplies, tennis balls or rubber bands on them and a little sketch of a person “using“ them. Visiors were encouraged to recreate what the drawings depicted. This element of participation is very vital for Wurm’s work. He questions what really makes an object a sculpture, how we perceive objects and what changes them from objects into sculptures. So in this project he says “people turn from subject to object“ by choosing to follow the “instructions“ and by participating (Wurm, 2014).
Clothes in general and Pullovers in particular have always been of interest to the artist. He used them for his project “Mind Bubbles“, for which he dressed up large potato like objects in them. Depending on the shape and the kind of pullover these scultures represent certain personalities, psychological conditions or philosophical moments (xavierhufkens, 2007).
Also in “59 Positions“, 1992, a video in which Wurm dresses himself in a series of pullovers. In this artwork the human body meets the shell of the clothing, it is defined by it.
Erwin Wurm has been exhibited at museums and galleries around the world and appeared in many magazine and newspaper articles.
Sources:
Artnet, n.d. Erwin Wurm[online][viewed 1 March 2015]. Available from: http://www.artnet.com/artists/erwin-wurm/
DB Artmag, n.d. Artcouture[online][viewed 1 March 2015]. Available from: http://db-artmag.de/archiv/2004/d/2/1/192-4.html
| Ausstellungsfilm “Erwin Wurm: One Minute Sculptures”, 2014 [online][viewed 1 March 2015].Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDL5NVXwBFI
Open Eye Gallery, 2012. Erwin Wurm: One Minute Sculptures[online][viewed 1 March 2015]. Available from: http://www.openeye.org.uk/archive-exhibition/erwin-wurm-one-minute-sculptures/ |
Representation 
