Erwin Wurm

Feb 7, 2011

Erwin Wurm

Posted by Honey
Filed in All entries, Art

Erwin Wurm (born 1954) is an Austrian artist born in Bruck an der Mur / Styria. He currently lives and works in Vienna and Limburg, Austria. Previously-blogged (photos via Neatnest via Designboom)

44 Comments, Comment or Ping

master bator

boy would i like to rub one out in there

Feb 17th, 2011
greg glad

builder/designers like this are making incredible work. but infiltrating the galleries and pushing aside technically proficient painters is a disgrace to tradition.

Feb 17th, 2011
Damen

Who puts a window right infront of a toilet? Creepers….

Feb 17th, 2011
Dangerstevey

Is this really really creepy to anyone else?

Feb 18th, 2011
JtotheF

@Greg glad….disgrace to tradition? really? a work of art is a work of art…..what tradition are you talking about? The uptight, galleries where they look at you sideways if you can’t afford the million dollar work of art on the wall? SHARE THE SPACE.

Feb 19th, 2011
greame

I will never understand art today. What is this? Why is this? Its a narrow house? So what? What is so fantastic about this?

Feb 19th, 2011
Bill Burjer

one will need really good aim to hit that toilet

Feb 19th, 2011
Mark

greg glad said:
“…pushing aside technically proficient painters is a disgrace to tradition.”

I don’t think that art is best served by putting tradition ahead of innovation. Otherwise we’d still be painting bisons on the walls of caves. Picasso only became a great artist when he broke with tradition.

Feb 19th, 2011
Tun Nguyen

ultra-thin, super nice

Feb 20th, 2011
Tineke de Boer

This is very strange, but odd. A kind of not really believing, a wormhole world, where everything is going to be smaller in mass.

Feb 20th, 2011
T. Harlequin

@greame The fact that you are questioning the piece of art is the reason you don’t understand it. It doesn’t always have a point, a reason for existence or use. It just is, it’s there for the sake of being there. Yes, many art pieces are there to invoke something within us or send out a message, but if you look at a piece and expect it to have a point or ask what’s so special about it well then obviously there’s nothing fantastic about it, in your opinion. Art is a matter of opinion, every piece of art is geared towards different people. I personally rather like this piece, I think it’s very clever but then many people, like yourself, will just look at it and shrug, and you are completely entitled to do so. This comment is far too long, should’ve just stuck with internet-speak and said “LoL you n3bw”

Feb 20th, 2011
artSFan

This is a great, funny and clever satire on urban “crush” syndrome. “How could anyone actually live there?” is a question I’m sure many ask when seeing this installation. The answer, inasmuch as relates to the effect of increased housing density on humans is, “You can’t.” Subsist, consume – maybe. But humans need space to thrive.

Feb 20th, 2011
Jesus of Ontario

I agree with both T.Harlequin’s response to greame and artSFan’s analysis of the art work. I think the two comments compliment each other nicely. Good work internet!

Feb 20th, 2011
Rupert

I like this rather a lot.
To me it is both a really neat piece of artistic design and a way of using extremes to showcase space-saving techniques.

Feb 22nd, 2011
eric gaskell

I can’t say that this work is something I am particularly wowed by but technical skilful and a nice idea – certainly worth doing. I wouldn’t go as far as agreeing with Greg saying it was a disgrace to tradition art comes in many forms. But I think Mark got wrong as well, Picasso never really broke with tradition. He was always a figurative painter.

Feb 22nd, 2011
fitoutgirl

I think it’s a poignant way to interpret how urbanites feel an increasing need to compress living spaces, and also how humans occupy a small, compressed part in the evolution of the planet. The juixtaposition is interesting, as both are real and both are perceived. So it’s a comment on the bigger picture as well as the ‘here and now’ for civilised societies.

Feb 22nd, 2011
Jens Kamstrup Larsen

If I should say something about the picture above, it would be that I could not see the photo art in it. Just some playing with a progression program. When I succeed in logging in,I will show you how far you can go that direction. Sincere jklc13

Feb 22nd, 2011
Bhavesh Chhatbar

Compressed expression!

Feb 23rd, 2011
Gene GreccoStoliesSimile'

Art for Art’s sake. Was this worthwhile? To the creator it was. Did you enjoy it? If not, what did it cost you to look?
I would there would be art than war with peace and harmony sufficient for all human measures of happiness.

Feb 23rd, 2011
Anon

The below comment is amazing

Feb 23rd, 2011
Artpad

Interesting piece. Generated emotions for and against. Did its job in opening and closing some minds. In the end it may fade away in modernities tradition to simply shock the publics sensibilities.

Feb 23rd, 2011
MystrBaszh

tl,dr : the whole commentaries… But isn’t that an “Apple House” ?
You know, it does the same that other houses, but IT’S INCREDIBLY SLIM !
Yeah the toilet’re a mess … BUT YOU NEVER SAW TOILETS THAT THIN BEFORE !
)

Feb 23rd, 2011
zanna

it’s art. You’re not necessarily supposed to understand it, or even like it. You’re supposed to react to it, and it looks like it has achieved that goal based on the posts! Long live the bleeding hearts and artists!

Feb 23rd, 2011
Chris Waikiki

Phantastic exhibition – I’ve seen it by live there. So wonderful to see such a crazy idea set to reality. Pictures of it I’ve collected here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chriswaikiki/sets/72157626122314182/

Feb 23rd, 2011
robin

Love what fitoutgirl says above. It’s art for art, but I personally believe it has a more with less statement. A statement about where we as a world are headed perhaps?. We hope to maintain our interior aesthetics while living in an overcrowded, overprocessed, overdone world. And if one doesn’t see that, then I suppose one can be happy that someone finally designed a home for Flat Stanley.

Feb 23rd, 2011
cloudy

@greame: it is fantastic because IT IS a narrow house.
he also made a sad fat house – if you ever have the chance to see erwin wurm in real – go for it!!! It’s a crazy experimence and you’ll love him for ever!

Feb 23rd, 2011
Hermione Granger

At first I looked at this like I would another piece of useless modern art such as a piece of string nailed to a wall or a splatter-painted canvas that looks like a 3 year old got into the paint at home.
Another useless item.
This might be the lack of sleep talking, but looking deeper into the meaning behind the house, I see a symbol of what society is doing to our culture.
Squeezing out art, beauty, and the space to create.
Everything nowadays has to be thinner and perfect and manufactured to look the way that society deems acceptable.

You can disagree with what I said, but don’t tell me I’m wrong.
It’s an opinion. No one can be wrong about their opinions.

Feb 23rd, 2011
thomasson

At first, it’s strange and unusual. When reaching the bottom, I find it interesting and fianlly, I like tihs form of art.

Feb 24th, 2011
Ben

I guess i dont have to understand it judging from what people have said. But that toilet, bed and bath dont work lol…. my arse would hurt on that toilet!

Feb 25th, 2011
Rita

Made me clostrophobic!!

Feb 25th, 2011
sv2109

Не ну ванна еще куда не шло.. но УНИТАЗ?? Я сутра в такой точно не попаду ))))
А вообще круто! ))

Feb 27th, 2011
Michael

Greg,

Where would you suggest this artist present his work? I can’t think of a more appropriate place. All I know is it wouldn’t fit in my house, which is beside the point since it doesn”t match my couch.

Feb 27th, 2011
Jull

Wow, this is so powerful and beautiful, it feels like you’ve just entered a distorted dimension and your body is being compressed between the layers of space. Art isn’t suppose to wow you and you don’t have to necessarily understand it, you just look at it and get inspired to imagine, think, feel, say something or do nothing. Nice thinreality!

Mar 1st, 2011
Mark J.

I love his crazy cars as well or even his house in Vienna: http://muscvlvs.blogspot.com/2011/03/erwin-wurm-e-un-artista-austriaco-il.html

Mar 7th, 2011
Melissa

I think it is beautiful and amazing.

Mar 12th, 2011
Laura

anyone notice that the books are too wide to be in scale with the rest of the house?

Mar 16th, 2011
Some dude

I live in Tokyo and I swear to God there are real houses like that. OK, maybe an extra foot wider.

@master bater LOL

Apr 9th, 2011
Tinbo

It means something different to everyone.. To me it’s representing how crowded and trapped we can feel in our own homes. I think it’s amazing.

Apr 19th, 2011
Ligo Saint

it’s art. You’re not necessarily supposed to understand it, or even like it. You’re supposed to react to it, and it looks like it has achieved that goal based on the posts! Long live the bleeding hearts and artists!

Oct 10th, 2011
Dan Harte

The comments are mostly pretty interesting. Mostly, I agree with whomever said as a work of art it need not “mean”, but simply “be”. That once accepted in the art world as art, it has no more reason for existence and existence has for being. Art is that conundrum. Most of us never get to understand what’s “really going on in the world of art, it’s an incestuous self-referential sphere of activity from which emerges stuff which we then live with. We react to it as we will, as we do to trees, oceans, other humans, wars, products, activities. Some we label some we puzzle over. Art is life as is all we do.

Jan 6th, 2012
Dan Harte

Please make the following corrections to my remark: “reason for existence than existence has . . .”. ‘”remarl”‘. Thanks.

Jan 6th, 2012
Dan Harte

Um – ‘”remark”‘

Jan 6th, 2012