This one is definitely not for the squeamish, so if you already feel your stomach churning after the headline, it’s probably best to click out of this page right now.
Norwegian conceptual artist Alexander Selvik Wengshoel, reportedly cooked his own hip bone and then ate it with some potato gratin and wine, all in the name of art.
The 25-year-old made the claim to The Local website at the opening of his graduation exhibition from the Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art.
“I just wanted to use it in my art. I didn’t know at that time that I would boil it and eat it,” he told the website. “But it just came really naturally.”
According to Alexander, the meat tasted like “wild sheep”, and the hip bone was displayed as part of the exhibition – as well as the video of the operation to remove it.
The Local reports that the artist spent a year convincing doctors to let him film the replacement operation and keep the bone.
He admitted at eating the meat came as a “whim” but once he decided to do it, he made an occasion out of it.
“I had to boil off the meat to get to the bone, and when I started scraping off the meat, I took off a little piece and I thought, ‘why not do it. It’s not every day I will have a piece of human flesh which is mine and which it is possible to eat’, so I had a little taste, and then I thought, ‘that’s really nice’.”
“I made myself dinner while my girlfriend was at work, and I just resolved to have this really nice moment, with me and my hipbone,” he explained.
He admitted that his unusual project had gotten “different reactions” at the college he was studying at.
“Some like it, some understand, some hate it, some get really pissed off and start yelling at me ‘ this is not art’. It’s the whole spectrum of feelings and reactions,” he said.
“It’s nice to get people thinking about their own bodies, and their own view on their bodies, and what it’s possible to do with the body. I just work with my own body. That is my canvas.”
When The Local asked whether the whole story was a hoax, he simply answered; “it’s true – You can either believe it or not, that’s purely up to you”.
“I am not here to convince anyone and say ‘yes, yes, I really did this’. The story is the story. Either you believe it and we can start a discussion and talk about it, or you do not believe. It’s not up to me to make people believe it. I’m just saying it.”
Wengshoel was born with a deformed hip and before the operation spent years in a wheelchair or using crutches.
(Lead image via Metro/Facebook)
