Erwin Wurm is a formalist artist who often incorporates humour into his work. He plays with the idea that sarcasm and light humour make it easier to digest serious problems. We know him well by now for his 1 minute sculptures, in which he passes the ‘creation’ of the installation into the hands of the visitor, accompanied by instructions. The visitor becomes the sculpture, which is activated through the following out of these rules. Of course, these end up in some truly absurd results.
He says “humor is primarily a method for getting people’s attention—it should ultimately prompt people to look at things more carefully,”1 For me this comes across quite nicely in his Fat Cars series, in which he bloats typically pricey or status-portraying cars into bubble like machines.
John DeAndrea is an artist whose work sits deeply at the perfect likeness of human, in the uncanny valley. He brought out his intensely real sculptures at a time where this was extremely uncommon (most work is done between 1970-1990) due to abstraction being the norm. When we look at his work, we really do have to look at ourselves. An artist who portrays something so lifelike can easily be said to be placing a mirror in front of us. His hyperrealist sculptures are often nude, which to me is a strong appeal, since what we often imagine when thinking of realistic nude sculptures come from much earlier in the century with the likes of Rodin and Michelangelo.
John DeAndrea, Susan, 1985, Sculpture, polyvinyl/polychromed in oil, stiffened cloth
1Artnet, Erwin Wurm, accessed 13 october 2021, http://www.artnet.com/artists/erwin-wurm/
Public Delivery, Ewin Wurm’s one minute sculptures are refreshing, July 21, 2021, https://publicdelivery.org/erwin-wurm-one-minute-sculptures/
Insipiration Grid, Fat Cars & Other Bizarre Vehicle Sculptures by Erwin Wurm, June 20 2017, https://theinspirationgrid.com/fat-cars-other-bizarre-vehicle-sculptures-by-erwin-wurm/
Artnet, John DeAndrea, accessed 13 october 2021, http://www.artnet.com/artists/john-deandrea/