Weird is good.

In my opinion, and for my aesthetic tastes this is very true. Maybe it's my sense of humor (which is a little bit off the wall), but I generally like weird.

The tough thing about "weird" art, though, is that often times it's hard to explain why I like it. However, I read something today in the book I Sold Andy Warhol (too soon) by Richard Polsky -- a fantastic read for any one who is interested in the inner workings of art deals/art-world sketchiness-- that represented one of the reasons why I am inexplicably drawn to abstruse artwork.

The tumbleweed-esque pop art collector Leon Kraushar was once quoted in Life magazine as having said, "Pop art is the art of today and tomorrow and all the future... Renoir? I hate him. Bedroom pictures. It's all the same with Abstract Expressionists, all of them. Decoration. There's no satire; there's no today, there's no fun," (p. 173). While I have to say that I really don't agree with Kraushar on the merits of pop art versus abstract expressionism, I do think he's got a point. There's no harm in having a little fun with the work you produce. Satire is very profound.

Thus, with long intro, I give you Erwin Wurm.

Since the late 1980s Erwin Wurm (Austrian, b. 1954) began his ongoing series called "One Minute Sculptures," in which he poses himself or his models in unexpected and often times uncomfortably hilarious relationships with everyday objects close at hand, helping the viewer to investigate and question what we understand to be sculpture (and for that matter photography and performance). Here are a few of his One Minute Sculptures:

Wurm's One Minute Sculptures don't always involve people. Occasionally, he will use chairs balancing on one leg or with two legs propped up on carrots, a banana suspended between sliding cabinet doors, and upended and stacked configurations of hotel furniture-- all a little bit unusual. But what's really incredible about these is their frequent incorporation of perishable objects, which make the sculptures ephemeral and elusive.

The work that immediately captured my heart was Wurm's Fat Sculptures. I don't know if that's what their officially called, but that's what they are. In a series of mostly life-sized sculptures, Wurm imagines what every day objects would look like in their most obese state (had they the capacity to become that way.

So imagine that you get into your fat car...

and drive to your fat home. Where you will probably sleep on fat pillows with your fat dog in your fat bed.

In many ways, I have a hunch that Wurm draws a lot from Duchamp's why not? kind of attitude. I never felt comfortable approaching this kind of art until I let my guard down, let down my pretensions and joined in saying, "Yeah, okay, why not?" It's funny. It's weird. But it's also wonderful in the ways that it gently prods the viewer by challenging what feels uncomfortable.

For more info, here's a link.