Device 39C, Insulin Pumps, Holland Houdek

Artwork Overview

Holland Houdek, Device 39C, Insulin Pumps
Holland Houdek, Device 39C, Insulin Pumps
Holland Houdek
Device 39C, Insulin Pumps
2019
Holland Houdek
born 1985
Device 39C, Insulin Pumps, 2019
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: piercing; patina; copper; powder coating; insulin pumps; Swarovski crystals
Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 23 x 23 x 11 cm
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 9 x 9 x 4 1/2 in
Credit line: Courtesy of the artist
Accession number: EL2020.063
Not on display
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Images

Label texts

Healing, Knowing, Seeing the Body
Holland Houdek suggests that medical devices and surgical tools carry with them conflicting messages: they can provoke fear and terror, hope for healing, and a “macabre fascination” about how they would feel when used on a living body. Device 39C juxtaposes whimsical design, cheerful colors, and sparkling crystals with actual medical equipment—insulin pumps—to deliberately distract from fears about pain and death. For Houdek, this work also blurs past and present, existing “in the future by conceptualizing a new type of anatomy and ways to mend the body, while also gesturing to the historical genre of memento mori”—objects that serve as reminders of mortality and death, such as skulls.
Healing, Knowing, Seeing the Body
Holland Houdek suggests that medical devices and surgical tools carry with them conflicting messages: they can provoke fear and terror, hope for healing, and a “macabre fascination” about how they would feel when used on a living body. Device 39C juxtaposes whimsical design, cheerful colors, and sparkling crystals with actual medical equipment—insulin pumps—to deliberately distract from fears about pain and death. For Houdek, this work also blurs past and present, existing “in the future by conceptualizing a new type of anatomy and ways to mend the body, while also gesturing to the historical genre of memento mori”—objects that serve as reminders of mortality and death, such as skulls.

Exhibitions

Healing, Knowing, Seeing the Body
Cassandra Mesick Braun, curator
2021