Erwin Wurm: One Minute Sculptures – Open Eye Gallery Liverpool opens 22 June 2012

Patrick Henry, Director, Open Eye Gallery: “Erwin Wurm’s One Minute Sculptures are a near-perfect convergence of performance, sculpture and photography. They present a moment of escape from the grown-up world – a momentary revolution, an inversion of the established order”

“The fundamental steps consisted in abandoning the idea of durability and infinity. Sculpture could also last for just a few minutes, a few seconds. The works were transported to the level of the immediate present.”Erwin Wurm

Erwin Wurm (b. Austria) uses photography and film to capture transient sculptural works. Since the late 1990s Wurm has been developing One Minute Sculptures, an ongoing series in which we see the artist or his models pose in spontaneous ways with everyday objects.

These works question our expectations of sculpture, which was until recent decades understood as lofty, permanent and monumental. Wurm’s sculptures couldn’t be further from these conventions. They are spontaneously improvised, using humble, everyday materials. They are playful, like children’s games, and often comical.

There is also a dark and surreal aspect to these works. Some hint at violence or resemble obscure rituals. Their rejection of the rules of traditional art extends to a wider critique of social norms and values. They propose an anarchic alternative to an orderly, hierarchical view of the world.

In their combination of sculpture, performance and photography, these One Minute Sculptures also represent a highly distinctive convergence of artistic traditions.

Open Eye Gallery
19 Mann Island
Liverpool Waterfront
Liverpool L3 1BP

Gallery opening times: 10.30am to 5.30pm, Tuesday to Sunday. Closed Monday.
Free entry.

Exhibition dates: 22 June– 2 September 2012

Tel: 0151 236 6768

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Written by Editor