Monday, June 09, 2008

Things that make you go, "hmmmm"

At first glance, this viewmaster from Belgian conceptual artist Wim Delvoye reminded me of the version I had as a small child. Then I delved a little deeper and all similarities ended. My viewmaster featured slides with, I believe, scenes from Snow White and Sleeping Beauty...

Wim Delvoye's version contains 12 discs of 3-D photographs of his "Cloaca-installations". Having no idea who or what a Cloaca was I decided to do some investigating. And I found that Cloaca are combinations of art and science which duplicate certain bodily functions or, to be more precise...

"Mini Cloaca is a tubular structure made of metal and glass, and composed of mechanical organs that swallow, grind, digest and defecate a given amount of food. The quantity of food ingested is equivalent to that of a French-style breakfast. The particular aestheticism of this machine, with its transparent organs and visible Archimedes-screws, is an attraction in itself."

Apparently Delvoye tries to rid the figure of the artist of "the romanticism commonly attached to it". I think he's succeeded, how about you?
Photobucket

2 comments:

  1. I came here after reading "Daddy Likey" and misread your post as saying "chocha" installations.

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  2. Well, I'm speechless.

    ReplyDelete