Thursday, June 23, 2011

Advice to collectors

The Swiss artist Urs Fischer makes candles. Not cute birthday cake jobs or the ceremonial votive jobs but wax sculptures of chairs, people and statuary with wicks. At the Venice Biennale three of his giant candles were featured in the Arsenale including one of his friend the artist Rolf Stingel who we have posted on before

The connection to collectors? Well, Fischer has also created a wax candle effigy of collector Peter Brant, but there is a catch in owning such a work. The collector has to decide on how quickly to allow the candle to burn down until it becomes a waxy blob on the floor. The catch is that the candles look more remarkable as they come closer and closer to their demise. 

The advice? Don’t burn your candle at both ends.