Untitled (Adaptives)

Communication and participation are key aspects of Franz West’s oeuvre. That is especially true of the “Adaptives,” a series the Austrian artist started developing in the mid-1970s. Vaguely organic shapes made out of papier mâché, plaster, polyester, or rubber with which the beholders were encouraged to interact, the portable pieces were meant to enhance the human body not unlike limb extensions or prostheses. It was only through such performative action, West believed, that the objects became art. Informed by Viennese Actionism, the artist thus undermined the traditional conceptions of the work of art and the object of utility as well as the view that the audience plays only a passive role in art.