Lost Direction IV（2016）Aluminium, wood, carpet，130 × 60 × 45 cm each，Courtesy of Otto Gallery

Swiss-born, German-based artist, Urs Lüthi was known for his self-portraits made in the 1970s, using his own image as an instrument of expression. Since then, he has had a diverse body of works experimenting with photography, painting, sculpture, performance, video and silkscreen. He often combined his autobiography, his body and its physiological changes into a coherent work of art to provoke and bring together irony and self-irony. This also highlights the ambiguity of himself as an image in an image, and questions viewers about the reality in front of them. 

Lost Direction IV displays bodies whose extremities are missing and bodies resting in an unnatural way, as though they have completely lost their direction. Simultaneously, the sculptures are placed on high pedestals akin to monuments, adding a sense of solemnity and almost comic irony. The unnatural poses of the figures also cast doubt on whether the human body is sleeping or dead, alluding to the impossibility of grasping a unilateral and absolute interpretation of reality.