Giant Big, Me Ideal

Erwin Wurm combines realism with abstraction in his unique anthropomorphic bronze sausage sculpture. This three-meter-high sculpture, with arms reaching for the sky and legs ready to leap, is reminiscent of a lively cartoon character.

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"I work a lot with realism, and I wanted to create a figure, a realistic figure, without human anatomy, so what do you choose? I wanted to choose a biological material, and sausage is a biological material - it's made of animal intestines filled with pureed meat, which in turn reminds you of certain things... Then I thought it might be much more interesting to call it an abstract sculpture, because people start to doubt what they're looking at. I wanted to play with it." The three-meter-tall anthropomorphic bronze sausage sculpture stretches its arms into the sky. Its legs are tense and ready to jump in a gesture of celebration, like a silly human figure that could be a cartoon character. Wurm plays with the contrast between the triviality of the sausage, the iconic object of Austrian culture, and the tradition of public bronze sculpture, prompting a strong reflection on masculinity and political power dynamics.