El hombre con el hacha y otras situaciones breves – Venecia (Man with an Axe and Other Brief Situations – Venice) by artist Liliana Porter is an art installation made in 2017. Its dimensions variy depending on where it is installed, but it typically covers a large floorspace when installed a gallery. Most recently, it measured twenty feet along one gallery wall, and twenty-five along the other. It is made of various figurines no more than four inches tall and small objects placed on a wooden base. The piece has a foundation of a matte white base that hugs the face of the walls. On top of this base, we can see an ocean of figurines doing various activities with broken objects scattered among them. The figurines vary from shirtless men shoveling sand, men untangling balls of yarn, a woman knitting, to the titular man with an axe striking broken porcelain. The trail of broken objects scattered around these figures begins with the man with the axe. The space behind the man with the axe is empty and the space in front of him forms a funnel-like shape that starts feet, and widens out into the many scenes depicted by the hundreds of figurines and small broken objects. The size of broken objects gradually increases in size from dust, pieces of porcelain cups, pieces of wood, chairs, and books until it reaches its pinnacle with the remnants of an upright piano. On the opposite side of the man with the axe there is a figure with a broom sweeping away a long trail of bright red sand that resembles pulverized blood. It is unclear if the figures are collectively destroying the objects around them or in the process of cleaning them up.