Norwegian Artist Eats Own Hip, Says It Tastes Like "Wild Sheep"
After convincing doctors to let him keep the bone removed during his hip replacement operation, a Norwegian conceptual artist boiled it on "a whim" and then ate the flesh with potato gratin and a glass of wine. He claims the meat tasted like "wild sheep." Oh!
Alexander Selvik Wengshoel, the 25-year-old artist, was born with a deformed hip and spent years in a wheelchair while going through a series of failed operations. He was finally given his metal hip replacement when he was 21. His hip bone, which he was allowed to keep, was displayed alongside film of the operation as part of his graduation show from the Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art. (He admitted that the project inspired "different reactions" at his college, saying, "Some like it, some understand, some hate it, some get really pissed off and start yelling at me ' this is not art.'")
As he explained to The Local, it wasn't always his plan to eat the hip:
"I just wanted to use it in my art. I didn't know at that time that I would boil it and eat it. But it just came really naturally."
Right.
"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.'"
Totally got it. Say no more!
"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."
GOT IT, SAY NO MORE!
"... It wasn't that much, it was not enough to get full, it was just an appetiser." ... "It had this flavour of wild sheep, if you take a sheep that goes in the mountains and eats mushrooms. It was goaty."
Oh god. The Local asked if the whole story was a hoax and, not surprisingly, Wengshoel didn't relent. Instead he explained, "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."
