Sidsel Meineche Hansen’s first solo exhibition in Belgium brings together new and existing works in a gentle, titillating, and sharp installation, specially created for the former anatomical theatre of KIOSK.
The building housing KIOSK was once home to the Clinical and Outpatient Institute, where students could witness dissections of human bodies. Hansen’s Untitled (Anatomical Venus) addresses the history of dissection through the medium of anatomical waxes, specifically referencing the figure of the Venerina (Little Venus), an 18th-century pregnant teenager who died of a heart attack, with her organs dissected and crafted in wax.
In Untitled (Anatomical Venus) (2024), the sexual and reproductive organs embedded in Mei-neche Hansen’s life-size sculpture are also cast in wax, following a dissection of a donated body by surgeons at UZA, Antwerp University Hospital. The exterior of the wax sculpture, by contrast, is cast from a modified 3D stock model, characteristic of Meineche Hansen’s previous CGI-based works such as No Right Way 2 Cum (2015) and DICKGIRL 3D(X) (2016). Through the use of wax—a visceral material linked to biological processes metabolized through the bodies of bees—the voyeuristic and historical gaze of scientific inquiry is conflated with contemporary questions and associated meanings, surrounding bodily representation and consent.
The commission at KIOSK also includes two new stop-motion animations by the artist: Only an Angel Falls from Grace (2024) and D’s Piano (2024), created from a series of AI-generated images. In the first animation, Snow White’s dress is altered to incorporate the colors and symbolism of Israel’s flag, while her hands are marked with dripping blood. The animation is accompanied by the phrase Kun en Engel falder i Unåde (“Only an Angel Falls from Grace”), adding a contemporary, genocidal dimension to the familiar fairy tale. The second animation, D’s Piano, revisits a central scene from Disney’s Snow White, in which Grumpy plays the organ. In this reimagining, Grumpy is distorted beyond recognition, and the whimsical soundtrack is replaced by a fragment of Beethoven’s score playing into the gallery space.
From the anatomical theatre’s existing skylight hangs MISSIONARY (2023), a text-based sculpture composed of blown glass letters, resembling a medieval chandelier. The title refers to the double meaning of the term, used to designate both sexual convention and religious duty, particularly in the context of Catholic missionaries and nuns. Also hanging, but from the wall, is Hook No. 9 (2023), a large-scale metal sculpture modeled after a rudimentary meat hook. Evocative of both the metaphorical and literal meaning of being “hooked,” the sculpture is created using lost-wax casting.
Finally, Butterfly (1) (2021), a methylene blue drawing on silk, and Globe (2023), a collaborative painting with musician and artist Joanne Robertson, round off the show. The blue color of methylene is a chemical compound used in the analysis of human tissue and as an active ingredient in prescribed psychoactive drugs. Globe, in red, presents a bloody, global perspective on current events with themes from the two artists’ 2021 album Alien Baby, released by Tender Books.
