Photographic negative
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
National Heritage Memorial Fund
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-beuys-747" aria-label="More by Joseph Beuys" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Beuys</a>
Show Your Wound
ARTIST ROOMS
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
architecture
birth to death
cross
death
diseases and conditions
dissecting table
division
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
history
inscriptions
medical
objects
people
photographic
politics and society
politics: Germany, division, post-1945
repetition
society
suffering
symbols and personifications
townscapes / man-made features
underpass
universal concepts
vulnerability
wounded
relief photographic
Show Your Wound
support: 327 × 450 mm
frame: 1075 × 791 × 50 mm
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a>
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the <a href="/search?gid=999999967" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">National Heritage Memorial Fund</a> and the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 2008
<p>This negative image shows a pair of dissecting tables which were used in the 1974-75 installation 'Show Your Wound'. Beuys created the installation in a dark and dingy pedestrian underpass in Munich, where the sounds of traffic overhead and harsh glare of neon lights were an integral part of the atmosphere created. Above the tables are two rectangular metal boxes, their placement suggesting the position of 'heads' to bodies lying on the beds. Beuys used double images and objects to refer to death, and the divisions within people and society. As he had suffered a heart attack in 1975, the allusions to death and inclusion of the tables (as used in a mortuary) are particularly striking.</p>

Online caption
2009-04-16T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
architecture birth to death cross death diseases and conditions dissecting table division emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities history inscriptions medical objects people photographic politics and society politics: Germany, division, post-1945 repetition society suffering symbols and personifications townscapes / man-made features underpass universal concepts vulnerability wounded