Sty's the limit

WIM DELVOYE COURTS  controversy like it’s going out of style. The Belgian  neo-conceptual artist’s  more provocative excursions  include tattooing a herd of live pigs (one with a Louis Vuitton logo that prompted threats of a lawsuit) and creating a room-sized installation of six glass containers faithfully replicating each stage of the human digestive process – down to the excrement – which were signed and sold for US$1,000 each.

He’s not the only one. Think of the 1999 “Sensation” exhibition  featuring a dung-decorated Madonna  (Chris Ofili),  decades-long careers built on dissected sharks (Damien Hirst)  or a showcase of the state of one’s own bed after a nervous breakdown (Tracey Emin).

''It’s not like you suddenly say, ‘Oh, I’m so surprised they are all shocked,’” says Delvoye whose anarchic, playful artworks often blend humour with a subversive touch.

“You know the reactions. You know some will be annoyed, but these are the feelings that I want to make in people. I was never understated as a young artist. I felt a bit weird, but that never bothered me and it never stopped me.”

This time around, in his current exhibition at Galerie Perrotin Hong Kong,  Delvoye  puts a twist on what some might consider sacred.

The eponymous show presents his decorative hand-carved car tyres; the striking, laser-cut steel Twisted Dump Truck;  and a new series of twisted,  bas-relief conceptual pieces made of alloy that, upon closer inspection, are revealed to be distorted crucifixes.