Wim Delvoye

Wim Delvoye has been tattooing pigs since the 1990s. In recent years it seems that more artists are killing animals in the name of art. What are your thoughts on this project? Should a line be drawn between branding animals for slaughter and consumption and tattooing and slaughtering animals in the name of art? What say you?

i copy and pasted that sentence. In the name of art??? what a strange phrase.

Bringing Home the Bacon: Wim Delvoye ArtAsiaPacific, pp. 154-159 30 September 2007

Interview with Delvoye and Paul Laster
SPERONE WESTWATER

WIM DELVOYE: I started in 1992, did one or two pigs in 1994 and in 1995 I tattooed 15, but they were dead pigs; I got the skins from slaughterhouses. I started to tattoo live pigs in 1997. I was interested in the idea of the pig as a bank – a piggy bank. I didn’t have the concept formulated yet, but I decided to place some small drawings onto these living organisms and let them grow. From the beginning, there was the idea that the pig would literally grow in value, but I also knew that they were considered pretty worthless. It’s hard to make something as prestigious as art from a pig. It’s not kosher."

"In the early works, the imagery was as banal and trivial as possible: skulls, hearts, crosses. It was an encyclopedia of trivial things. I wasn’t really interested in the pig’s anatomy. But once I started tattooing live pigs, I was forced to take an interest in their anatomy, and that affected the composition. I gained new respect for the animals and began making tattoos for them. For example, the tattoo would follow the butt and shoulders and, as the pig grew, it became paler while the lines became thicker."

"There are two schools of thought about how the pigs should be exhibited. Some people like the flat skins hanging on the wall because you still see bits of the head and legs. Others prefer the hairy skins stretched like a canvas. If I have a complete skin with hooves and ears intact, and I like the tattoo, then I stuff it. It becomes more sculptural that way. I used to have the stuffed pigs standing, but now I prefer them sitting, like a stone lion outside a Chinese restaurant." ‘Because they grow fast and they are so much better to tattoo than fish.’

Controversy!
The artist is killing animals for art. Well, other people kill them for food and that is unnecessary too. I think this work is very powerful and full of arguments, reasons, meanings and so it seems contradictions. I think Delvoye has taken it as a fact of life that these pigs would have died anyway so is treating them as a commodity but for novelty value rather than nourishment. These pigs would have lead a much better life than those we buy as bacon in the supermarket. They even get coal in winter when they're cold (bad!) Personally I wouldn't kill animals for the sake of art but criticism from people that eat meat is meaningless to me. love the tattoos of disney, Louis Vuitton and other 'iconic' things. Delvoye is a vegetarian.

"Some designs I try for the first time on people and, if they work, I will surely re-create the tattoo on a pig."

SO many people have the courage to say that this is cruelty online (as always). Calling tattoos mutilation! And saying it isn't art. haha. People are so quick to condemn him for allowing these animals to be slaughtered for their skin. Fucking morons. Even after they are dead these pigs are revered and on display, thats kind of sick but i think it's better than just being made into a ball or a piece of furniture. It is the people that purchase the pigs that decide to kill them, and the artist says that none of them keep the animal as a pet. Some let the pig die of old age, emphasis on the word let. I don't think that "it's better than" or a least he's not...: are justification for tattooing the pigs. I'm confused. You can never really do the animal's justice. Keeping them as a pet, releasing them into the wild, theres a form of cruelty involved in everything and it can't be avoided unless you were to go back hundreds of years and never eat the pigs in the first place. fuuuck i dont know. This work is powerful and i like it I'll leave it at that.

Tattooing, skin, life, permanence, animals, commodity; Delvoye's work contains many ideas that interest me and that i want to have within my own work. I've decided now that i don't really want to deal specifically with the animal issues and make it more about the female body and perceptions around that. I will still draw comparisons between humans and animals but will not let this take over my work. I think my work will be much stronger than last year with the added elements of feminism and the abject.

Delvoye's work Cloaca is shitty i love it, commodifying poos, not even real poos. thats the interesting part. He sells cloaca paraphenalia including tshirts and key chains. His shit is highly sought after.