In his ongoing series of Gothic works, initiated in 1999, Belgian artist Wim Delvoye, about whose tattooed pigs I have blogged about in the past, created some very unusual stained-glass windows and sculptural works made of steel, lead, glass and actual x-rays.
For his “Chapel” series, Delvoye took x-rays of two friends performing sexual acts, then combined the x-rays with stained glass to fill the windows of a gothic-style chapel. Some of the windows simply look as though they are made of an abstract design, when upon closer inspection, one can see teeth, intestines, skulls and other anatomical features. Others are more explicit in their representation.
Here are several examples (the following images were all composited by IIHIH, please do not reproduce without linking back to this post):
In addition, several of the stained glass windows shown above also appeared in miniature in Wim's "Chapelle," 2007:
above: Stainless steel, stained glass window, electricity / Acier, inox, vitraux, électricité
10.8 x 10.0 x 5.11 Feet / 326 x 305 x 181 cm
Solo exhibitions of Wim Delvoye’s work have been organized by Castello di Rivoli (1991), Kunsthalle Nürnberg (1992), Open Air Museum Middelheim in Antwerp (1997), Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (2000), Migros Museum in Zurich (2001), Museum Kunst-Palast in Dusseldorf (2002), The Power Plant in Toronto (2004), and Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice (2009). His work has also been included in major group exhibitions such as Venice Biennale (1990, 1999, and 2009), Documenta IX (1992), Sydney Biennale (1992), Lyon Biennial (2000 and 2005), and Shanghai Biennale (2006). Delvoye lives and works in Ghent.
individual images and info courtesy of Galerie Perrotin and the artist
