Little Big House Butter Dish by Artist Erwin Wurm

erwin wurm butter dish

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.

butter dish by erwin wurm

artist sculped butter keeper

little big house butter keeper

erwin wurm ceramic fat house

we do not work alone butter dish

butter dish bottom erwin wurm

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.

Fat House installation by Erwin Wurm, image: wikipedia
Fat House installation by Erwin Wurm, image: wikipedia
Erwin Wurm, Fat House, Belvedere Gardens, 2017, photo: Thomas Ledi
Erwin Wurm, Fat House, Belvedere Gardens, 2017, photo: Thomas Ledi

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

house shaped butter dish

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