How To: Recreate Creationism

Belgian artist Wim Delvoye worked with a team of professionals for eight years to create this piece, Cloaca. This machine was originally in Antwerp, Belgium at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MuHKA) in 2000. When my sculpture teacher first showed this image to our class, none of us knew for certain what Delvoye's creation produces; most of us guessed it makes something like cookies or alternative fuel.

What does it actually do? This machine performs the exact same function as the human digestive system. Food is imputed at the far end, and travels through a series of tanks, hoses, and pressurizers, and eventually comes out onto a conveyor belt as human feces that was once sold for $1000 daily.


It could easily be argued that this is more of a scientific experiment than a work of art. Either way, Delvoye forces his audience to think about the complexities of the human body we take for granted constantly.

More information about Cloaca and other works by Delvoye can be found here.