Urns (Set of 8)

Avoiding any signature style, Thomas Schütte has produced an oeuvre of perplexing diversity, including architectural models, photographs, sculpture, and watercolor drawings. His decidedly unimposing, antiheroic works explore the cultural, economic, historical, and social conditions of his native Germany with a detached, often humorous, sensibility. Much of Schütte’s work addresses the almost existential difficulty postwar German artists encounter in attempting to create monuments and memorials. As such, it evidences an ongoing preoccupation with themes of death, mourning, and collective memory. This is true of Urns, an installation comprising eight ceramic vessels glazed in a palette of solid colors marked by streaks, drips, and other surface effects. Ranging from three to five feet in height, these fragile containers at once imply living bodies and oversize repositories for their ashes. The vessels are intended to be grouped together, like a family. Displayed closed, these mysterious containers prompt speculation about what might be contained inside. One of the urns, however, lacks a top and bottom; viewing the installation from above reveals that it is empty.