Win Delvoye is a Belgian artist whose elaborate artworks exhibit a wicked sense of humour. Delvoye’s Cloaca artworks are relevant to the field of Art & Nature and Technology, in that they are essentially machines that exhibit human characteristics (Heartney, 2008). Cloaca is a valid manifestation of Heartney’s bio art with the artworks exhibiting a collision of technology, which is demonstrated by the machines, and nature, which is illustrated with the human characteristic of digestion. Cloaca is a gigantic machine that performs one human, bodily function, that when confronted, the viewer can shockingly, identify with. Cloaca challenges the modern condition of uncertainty, concerning “where human life begins and ends” (Cameron, 2008).
Visually, Cloaca is an assembly line of machines and computers that resemble a scientist’s laboratory. At one end is an opening that is fed prepared, gourmet meals periodically, which then progress though a simulated process of human digestion. Eventually, at the other end of Cloaca, the machine dispenses of several samples that have been tested to be almost human. The excreted matter is then individually packaged and sold (Criqui, 2001).
Delvoye’s Cloaca expresses a provocative statement concerning “our ultra-consumerist society” (Amy, 2008). Humans utilise technology to make objects that are desired, only to dispose of them shortly after.
Wim Delvoye, Cloaca New & Improved, 2001. Mixed Media, 1000 x 75 x 200cm. Migros Museum (25.08 - 14.10.2001).
Wim Delvoye, Cloaca Turbo, 2003. Mixed Media, 826 x 128 x 200 cm. Casino Luxembourg (30.09.2007 - 06.01.2008).
Wim Delvoye, Super Cloaca, 2007. Mixed Media, 1470 x 211 x 307 cm. Mudam, Guest House (13.10.2007 – 26.11.2007).
Bibliography
Books and articles:
Amy, Michael. “Wim Delvoye at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst.” Art in America 89.5 (2001): 185.
Criqui, Jean-Pierre. “Eater’s Digest.” Artforum International 40.1 (2001): 182.
Delvoye, Wim. Cloaca / Wim Delvoye. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art in association with Rectapublishers, 2001.
Heartney, Eleanor. Art and Today. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2008.
Images:
All images reproduced from http://www.wimdelvoye.be/ (accessed April 20, 2009).
Websites:
http://www.wimdelvoye.be/ (accessed April 20, 2009).
http://www.cloaca.be/articles.htm (accessed April 20, 2009).
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