When ordinary objects are interpreted by talented artists, you get function in a form worth admiring beyond its utility. A butter dish is a great example (much like the one we previously featured by artist, designer and sculptor Anissa Kermiche). This butter keeper by well-known Austrian artist Erwin Wurm is based on his “Fat House” series, and is the only piece of his work I could ever afford.

Erwin Wurm Butter Dish

The Little Big House butter dish edition by the Austrian artist Erwin Wurm is a piece of ceramic tableware made for the French artists boutique We Do Not Work Alone in a limited number of 300 pieces. The piece is intended, not without irony, to present a large amount of fresh butter.

This limited edition is based on the Fat House series of sculptures the artist began in 2003. These houses are part of a body of work in which Wurm gives artefacts properties usually reserved to biological organisms. The artist stages a series of symbols of our consumers society. Swollen life-size cars or houses deliver a snappy commentary.

Wurm also directed a video (below) in which one of the Fat House asks existential questions to the viewer, such as: ‘Am I an artwork because I am fat?’ Seemingly humorous at first glance, the Fat House series is casting doubt on our notions of common sense.

BUTTER DISH by ERWIN WURM – Little Big House

Limited edition : 300 copies numbered.
enameled ceramic
MADE IN EU
Dimensions: 6 x 7.5 x 4 inches

We found the piece available at three very different prices:

• $590 (542€) at Please Do Not Enter

• $329 (300€) at Best Art Editions 

• $725.71 (666,67€) at We Do Not Work Alone