Untitled

2011
Urs Fischer

Paraffin wax mixture, pigment, steel, wicks

189 x 115 x 130 cm (74 7/16 x 45 1/4 x 51 3/16 in.)

The sculpture of a man sat at a table, Untitled is a self-portrait in painted wax that slowly melts until the head falls off. At first realistic and then totally deformed—the head being set to inexorably fall on the table—, this somber self-representation evokes the artist's demise in the simplest expression of vanitas.

Without any glorification of the self, Urs Fischer's art tests the experience of time and memory. It is characterized by a mutable and fluid staging aimed at preventing any immobility of form or meaning. In this spirit of constant mutation, wax is Fischer's precarious material of choice and he repeatedly uses it in his realistic candle-sculptures: destined to be shapeless, they evolve from determined creation to accidental form.

Urs Fischer's sculpture Untitled was first shown by the Pinault Collection in the exhibition Madame Fisscher at Palazzo Grassi (2012).
Exhibitions
© Urs Fischer. Courtesy of the artist. Courtesy of Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Mats Nordman.
Exhibition view, Skinny Sunrise, Kunsthalle Vienna, Vienna, Austria, 2012.
© Urs Fischer. Courtesy of the artist. Courtesy of Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Mats Nordman.
Exhibition view, Skinny Sunrise, Kunsthalle Vienna, Vienna, Austria, 2012.
© Urs Fischer. Courtesy of the artist. Courtesy of Palazzo Grassi, Venice. © Palazzo Grassi ph: ORCH orsenigo_chemollo
Exhibition view, Urs Fischer, Madame Fisscher, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 2012.
© Urs Fischer. Courtesy of the artist. Courtesy of Palazzo Grassi, Venice. © Palazzo Grassi ph: ORCH orsenigo_chemollo
Exhibition view, Urs Fischer, Madame Fisscher, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 2012.
© Urs Fischer. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Fulvio Orsenigo
Exhibition view, Skinny Sunrise, Kunsthalle Vienna, Vienna, Austria, 2012.
© Urs Fischer. Courtesy of the artist. Courtesy of Palazzo Grassi, Venice. © Palazzo Grassi ph: ORCH orsenigo_chemollo
Exhibition view, Urs Fischer, Madame Fisscher, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 2012.
© Urs Fischer. Courtesy of the artist. Courtesy of Palazzo Grassi, Venice. © Palazzo Grassi ph: ORCH orsenigo_chemollo
Exhibition view, Urs Fischer, Madame Fisscher, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 2012.
© Urs Fischer. Courtesy of the artist. Courtesy of Palazzo Grassi, Venice. © Palazzo Grassi ph: ORCH orsenigo_chemollo
Exhibition view, Urs Fischer, Madame Fisscher, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 2012.
Urs Fischer's other artwork