Artist Urs Fischer is burning a sculpture of Russia’s most famous art collector

A lifesize candle depicting the founder of one of Russia’s leading art museums is set to be slowly burnt in the middle of one of London’s most prestigious neighbourhoods as part of a new art installation by Swiss artist Urs Fischer.

The waxwork image of Dasha Zhukova, art collector and founder of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, will sit — ever so slowly melting — in the Gagosian Gallery’s Davies Street space in London’s Mayfair between September 12 and November 3, 2018.

Dressed in a pink dress and reclining on a chair, the work, known as Dasha (2018), has a small wick placed at the top of her head, ready to be set alight. Designed to serve as an unsettling reminder of mortality, the candle sculpture reflects on the transience of life, beauty and even art. Even though Dasha is set to become little more than just wax droppings, it’s safe to say Zhukova herself doesn’t mind — she’s a close friend of the artist.