Wim Delvoye

Wim Delvoye

Wim Delvoye was born in 1965 in Wervik, Belgium. Working in such varied mediums as sculpture, drawing, live tattooed animals, stained-glass windows, and X-ray photographs, Delvoye mischievously brings together the extremes of high-brow and low-brow culture. In the late 80s, Delvoye applied Dutch ornamental traditions (i.e. Delft china patterns and coats of arms) to mundane objects like shovels, gas cylinders, and ironing boards. In works like Cement Truck (1990–91) and Delft Concrete Mixer (1992), lavish flourishes adorned larger objects. In his series Mosaics (1990–92), realistic renderings of excrement were used to decorate white ceramic tiles. In 1992, Delvoye began an extensive project in which he exhibited live pigs and dried skins of pigs, both covered in tattoos drawn from the domain of bikers and punk rockers: skulls, daggers, snakes, hearts, and Harley Davidson logos. In 2004, he extended this medium by exhibiting stuffed pigs and by expanding his tattoo vernacular to include Louis Vuitton patterns and images of Disney princesses.

Concurrent to his projects involving tattooed pigs and the eventual establishment of their permanent home at “Art Farm” in Beijing, Delvoye developed several other major projects. From 1998–99, the artist photographed patterns of various sliced meats meticulously assembled to approximate cold, clean marble floors. In his ongoing series of Gothic works, initiated in 1999, Delvoye created stained-glass windows and sculptural works. For the latter, he constructed, in the elaborate International Gothic style, massive equipment typically found on construction sites (a Caterpillar machine, dump truck, flatbed trailer, and cement truck). The artist’s ongoing project, Cloaca, involves several versions of an original machine completed in 2000, which replicated the digestive system, consuming matter at one end and producing excrement at the other.