Untitled #73 (from the series 'Technological Reliquaries')

Drawing on the Catholic tradition of reliquaries—containers for preserved bodily fragments of venerated persons—as well as modern scientific, commercial, and museological display strategies, Untitled #73 (from the series Technological Reliquaries) is an artificially carnal evocation of the divine. Struck by the architectural and decorative display of human remains in the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo, Sicily, which he visited in 1963, Thek began making sculptural assemblages featuring hyper-realistic wax sculptures that appeared to be butchered meat or preserved biological specimens in sleek vitrines. In this work, a section of simulated flesh—bruised, hairy, and pink—clings to a larger rectangular mass of raw red sinewy "muscle." On the surface of the vitrine, in a font reminiscent of the text on athletic jerseys, the number 73 is emblazoned in large red numerals with black borders, evoking both the specificity of a memorial and taxonomic impersonality.