The lesson: Do not leave your knife sculpture lying around.

Courtesy of Jan Hakon Erichsen

Norwegian performance artist Jan Hakon Erichsen really likes playing around with knives.

Late last year, videos of the artist popping balloons with a variety of homemade contraptions rigged with knives went viral after he posted a two-minute compilation of his work to Twitter.

Most people: I guess balloons are ok Me:

While Erichsen had found earlier online success with balloon fetishists, known around the internet as looners, when he went viral his work began reaching a wider audience of web denizens on the hunt for their next ASMR fix.



This video gave me ASMR tingles what the fuck https://t.co/OXToHHPbYp

But like so many us, Erichsen has had to make changes to the way he works in recent days. While Erichsen has continued to go into his studio, he had pivoted away from working with knives, hoping to avoid a trip to the hospital during the global coronavirus pandemic. In addition to his videos of knives fucking up balloons, Erichsen makes what he calls "furniture aerobics videos."

This my King Lear

But on Wednesday, things went south very quickly. "I was making a video for this series of videos where I balance on different furniture in different kinds of ways," Erichsen explained to BuzzFeed News. "So I set up some furniture I was going to balance on and then that's when I fell. I was actually planning to do that one on Instagram Live, so I'm just really happy that I didn't do that."

Erichsen fell onto what he calls his knife sculpture. It's essentially an old photograph mounted on some copper with dozens of knives stabbed through it.

Courtsey of Jan Hakon Erichsen A photo of the knife sculpture where Erichsen injured himself.

"It just looks really menacing and I thought it looked cool standing in my window sill so I left it standing there," Erichsen told BuzzFeed News. "When people come to my studio, they all comment that it is a nice piece. I didn't think about how when I was balancing I could fall into it, which was really, really stupid." After the fall, Erichsen first tried to patch himself up, but his hands were cut and there was blood everywhere. He eventually was transported to a hospital by ambulance. He needed 25 stitches for six puncture wounds. His arm is in a cast and he still has to go back for another surgery.

So it turns out I’m an idiot Yesterday I was making one of my furniture aerobics videos and I was balancing on something sketchy. Needless to say I fell, and I fell onto my knife sculpture (second pic) because I’m an idiot who leaves life threatening items standing around