Hirst faces his own mortality with clichés and a death wish. “Artist Damien Hirst has unveiled a diamond-encrusted human skull worth £50m - said to be the most expensive piece of contemporary art.” “I just want to celebrate life by saying to hell with death,' said the artist, 'What better way of saying that than by taking the ultimate symbol of death and covering it in the ultimate symbol of luxury, desire and decadence?” BBC + Video | White Cube gallery | Guardian 2006 | Previously
8 Comments
Coming from someone as famous as Hirst this is disappointingly trite. I mean, it's like first-year-art-student-level trite!
Not to mention Gabriel Orozco used the skull not only so much better, but ten years ago:
"Most expensive artwork", "tallest building"...meaningless quantity over quality, IMO.
ultimate symbol of luxury, desire and decadence...yeah, thats living!
your existential crisis is brought to you by, the toxic and tiring combination of art and shopping!
calm down architects.
Care to expand that comment, PROJECT X? I'm critiquing art here, not architecture. It's bad art.
When have we known Hirst to be anything more than "first year art student trite?"
The concept of the work doesn't seem to be that of celebrating life. I don't even see how it could be construed as such at all.
It's far more devious than that.
Turning death into sheer luxurious commodity and media spectacle is the only thing that makes "For The Love of God" interesting.
As a matter of fact, it's so vile and vicious that unlike everything else Hirst has ever done, I like it.
arkhive - agreed on the trite topic - note I said someone as famous as Hirst, not good. I don't like his work and think vile and vicious (and I'll add vacuous) sums it up.
But in terms of death being luxuryious spectacle, look at funerals: huge celebrations, thousands spent, often gaudy to extreme. But there is an element of sincerity in them that makes the spectacle both interesting and loving.
Did you notice you have to pay to see THIS piece, but not everything simultaneously in the gallery? Hirst has never been interested in anything artful beyond the gate receipts
Liberty Bell,
It is precisely the cynicism of "For The Love of God" - the lack of sincerity - that makes it interesting.
It is art AS transgression, not as representation of transgression. It could have only been more compelling if the diamonds weren't ethically sourced.
(must step back and remind everyone that I'm not the misanthrope that this line of reasoning seems to imply.)
Were it sincere, it would be half-baked and asinine. Instead, it marks a turning point where "Hirst the enfant terrible" becomes "Hirst the bona fide monster."
Silly as Bowie's "concept" album "Outside" was, it's discussion of the concept of "ArtCrime" was pretty fun. This is the kind of feel I get from this piece.
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On a lighter note, For the Love of God isn't my favorite Hirst piece. This is -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/gloucestershire/3773257.stm
I disagree that lack of sincerity makes it interesting. Cynicism is boring, frankly. If I'm interested in talking about the human condition I want honesty, not posturing and stylists. That's all I ever see on TV or any other given media as it is! I want to see true nakedness, not pretty sound-bite nudity.
But I TOTALLY agree that the fact that the diamonds were reported to be "ethically sourced" is one of the things that blows the whole piece for me! If it's truly about glorifying excess, then they should have certified that the diamonds were NOT ethically sourced, or at the very least (imagining that Hirst and his people (fabricators, galleristas, managers) have ethics and wouldn't work with "blood" diamonds) the whole topic of ethical sourcing should have been dodged and left as a part of the mystery of the piece.
Mostly I hate the trite statements that come out of Hirst's mouth more than anything. The piece is gorgeously fabricated, but if one wants to talk about raising notions of life/consumption/body/death I think Orozco's skull is much more interesting.
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