Ephemeral Bodies: The ‘Candles’ of Urs Fischer

Abstract

At the 54th Venice Biennale, Urs Fischer presented the most monumental of his ‘candles’: a 1:1 scale replica of Giambologna’s The Rape of the Sabine Women. Together with two other wax sculptures—a copy of his favourite studio chair (a self-portrait) and the life-size statue of Rudolf Stingel (an alter ego)—it formed quite an eclectic sculptural group. But this ‘untitled’ installation was far from being an exercise in monumentality. At the Biennale opening, the sculptures were lit through candle wicks hidden in their bodies and started to melt. Though copies replaced the ‘originals’, Untitled resulted in a mass of ruins. More than a memento mori, it showed the passage of time focusing on the afterlife of images.