Larger than Life.
Day in Night out.
Recast and lit anew – the cycle of Life.
Caption accompanying Standing Julian:
Standing Julian is a portrait of Urs Fischer’s friend and fellow artist Julian Schnabel. The massive sculpture is also a wax candle: lit every morning and extinguished each night, Standing Julian will slowly melt over the course of the exhibition. Although this candle will eventually burn down and be discarded – a process that evokes the inevitable transience of life – the sculpture can also be recast and lit anew. As Fischer explained, his waxworks allow ”materials and images take on their own life.”
That was Julian, captured in September. Is there anything left of him today, I wonder. Is he still turning into a puddle of soft wax? Has a new Julian taken his place?
Would I know if nobody told me?
Standing Julian, 2015
Wax, pigment, steel and wicks
Urs Fischer
September 10th, 2016 at The Whitney Museum of American aRt
The Humble Fabulist 