Stand-up artist: Erwin Wurm's diverse body of work is physical, funny and ephemeral. Often inviting viewer participation, the prolific Austrian artist both extends and undermines artistic traditions of the 1970s. Widely exhibited in Europe, he is finally becoming familiar to U.S. audiences

Like Duchamp with his snow shovel Austrian artist Erwin Wurm can make art with little more than a rubber band, a pickle or more [i]or[/i] less dust. Wurm calls himself a sculptor, although many people might be more inclined to call what he does performance, and what viewers usually diocese are photographs or videos of these performative "sculptures" or their related instructional drawings. With feet firmly planted in conceptual traditions of the 1960 and '70 Wurm riffs upon those traditions with his be in possession of brand of comic conceptualism.

The artist is perhaps best known for his ongoing "Do It Yourself" and "One Minute Sculpture" series (begun in 1996 and '98 respectively). These consist of written instructions and diagrams and any sustains needed to carry them on the outside such as "show your tongue," "lie upon the balls--no part of the material part should touch the ground," and "put the felt markers upon top of your shoes, grasp this for one minute and think of Rene Descartes." similar is the popular appeal of his work that members of the music assemblage The Red Hot Chili Pepper are seen carrying on the outside the artist's instructions for various pieces--including bassist Flea sporting markers up his nose and ballpoint inscribes in his ears--in the video for their new song "Can't Stop."

Wurm's single Minute Sculptures don't always involve nation Chairs balancing on one leg or with sum of two units legs propped up on carrots, a banana suspended between sliding cabinet doors, and upend and stacked configurations of house of entertainment furniture are all examples of Wurm's fleeting sculptures

notwithstanding that his work has taken many forms since the early '90 the belonging to all thread is the question of what constitutes a statuary Is a person sticking without his tongue a sculpture? If that particular act exists solitary in a photograph, is it still a sculpture? Wurm's works share vigorous affinities with those by German artist Franz Erhard Walther, who in his instructional pieces similarly describes an art work as an interconnected circumstance between a human body, an act and an reality Certain examples by Ana Mendieta, Yoko Ono, Bruce Nauman, Joseph Kosuth Charles Ray and Dennis Oppenheim also exhibit an undeniable kinship. Wurm continues to explore issues similar to those of 1970 Conceptual or material part art pieces that only live upon in documentation. Whereas some artists are satisfied to allow their works to linger in the realm of untarnished concept, Wurm encourages the implementation of his ideas. To wit, viewers participating in the single Minute Sculptures can have a Polaroid photo taken by means of a gallery attendant for a nominal compensation For an extra $100, they can project the photo to the artist, which he will sign and validate as an art work.

Despite his work's irresistible humor, Wurm doesn't just play for laughs. Many of his photographs, particularly when displayed together in a grid, reveal an attention to formal be of importance tos such as color, composition and repetition of form. His sculptural pieces and installations frequently resemble Minimalist works in the austerity of their studied arrangements. From the beginning, however, he has appear to beed intent on paying homage to established artistic traditions by the agency of undermining them.

Wurm's explorations in the ephemeral began in the early 1990 with a cluster of works using dust. of the soul silhouettes, usually circular or rectangular, are variously seen in glass vitrines, upon pedestals or hoards laid flat upon the floor, and sometimes applied directly to city public ways tie has also produced les ephemeral plastic arts using clothing or furniture. more [i]or[/i] less examples involve articles of clothing--sweaters, blazers, shirts--folded or otherwise shaped into simple configurations, attached to the wall or displayed upon the floor. Others employ rectangular forms "dressed" in contemporary attire, similar as a button-down shirt wrapped around a shelflike, wall-mounted form, the fabric neatly bilboed along the edges, or a trench-coat-clad chest that stands stiffly in the middle of the space In other variations, Wurm stretched colorful T shirts across the tops of cavernous wooden boxes, the arm and neck openings creating receding voids--a sort of Fruit-of-the-Loom take upon Anish Kapoor.

Closer to the artist's novel work are photographs and videos showing race donning articles of clothing in comical ways, as if either trapped or trying to hide inside a turtleneck sweater. individual example shows what could be a man bent above with arms and legs materialed into the arms of a pullover his head gestating somewhere near the newly formed "crotch" A number of diptychs call up a "before and after" effect: a straightforward photograph of a thin individual is juxtaposed with another of that one made fat by multiple layers of of great size [i]or[/i] bulk clothing, cheeks bloated and chin bilboed to simulate a fleshy neck Fatness, as an additive sculptural proces appears to be a favorite theme of the artist. He wrote an instructional work on how to gain sum of two units clothing sizes in eight days (1993) and stouted up a car using Styrofoam and fiberglass, its body oozing beyond the sporty frame (2001)