Courtesy Wim Delvoye & Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris
In his life-size replicas of a flatbed trailer and a cement truck, Wim Delvoye juxtaposes medieval craftsmanship with machine-age technology. This massive sculpture is made of corten steel and perforated with Gothic filigree. Gothic architecture looms large in the occidental cultural imagination. These days, heavy machinery such as excavators, bulldozers and cranes can accomplish almost overnight what once took decades. The artist transforms familiar icons of current urban productivity into ornate, non-utilitarian objects as homage to two far-flung eras of human invention.