Train, Pig Island
2007
Foam, mixed media
Variable dimensions
Larger-than-life figures in single file, one with a pig’s body, some headless, others with the caricatured face of George W. Bush, sodomise each other in an orgy on a table littered with empty champagne bottles.
This machine sculpture, as Paul McCarthy calls it, is an uncompromising political satire of the Bush Junior years. It belongs to the Pig Island series made from 2003 to 2010 as a work in progress, always depicting the former U.S. president having sex with pigs or his own simulacra. Beyond the sculptures’ grotesque, voyeuristic dimension, the series explores various visual issues and delivers a strong message about the state of American society.
Train, Pig Island was presented for the first time by the Pinault Collection during the 2009 group show "Mapping the Studio" at the Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi in Venice.
This machine sculpture, as Paul McCarthy calls it, is an uncompromising political satire of the Bush Junior years. It belongs to the Pig Island series made from 2003 to 2010 as a work in progress, always depicting the former U.S. president having sex with pigs or his own simulacra. Beyond the sculptures’ grotesque, voyeuristic dimension, the series explores various visual issues and delivers a strong message about the state of American society.
Train, Pig Island was presented for the first time by the Pinault Collection during the 2009 group show "Mapping the Studio" at the Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi in Venice.
Exhibitions
© Paul McCarthy.
Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Exhibition view.
