8 Comments

I disagree with the skull comments. I thought it was fantastic, the hype of getting in, the guards, the darkness, the claustrophobia, the crowds... its a disorientating event, albeit one slightly alien to the standard gallery experience, but the whole set up is an installation and feels just as integral to the skull as the diamonds. .

and im not sure what your point is when you say its beauty is odd, as surely thats part of the idea, that this most potent symbol of death has taken on a strange, odd, beauty with the jewels.

Or what you mean when you say its about 'the empty centre of modern celebrity'? Because celebrity wear diamonds? because they die too? because of the money? I agree wholeheartedly with the commerce bit, but why celebrity?
Rich
2007-07-05 11:03:46

On the celebrity front, I feel that so much of the attention that Hirst gets is as much about his celebrity status as his art - for the image created around him through his Groucho Club days and the Pharmacy restaurant, well as of course for the sharks etc. As many art critics have noted, the ideas in his art has moved on little since his heyday in the 90s, yet he continues to sell his new work for ever higher amounts as if his stardom and fame seems to outdo any criticism. This all seemed borne out visiting the White Cube show - It's rare to go to a contemporary art show in a commercial London gallery and find people queuing round the block to go in, and I couldn't help feeling that the draw to the exhibition was as much about Hirst as a "name" more than the art itself. Plus the set up to enter to see the skull felt so extreme (and I agree, became part of the experience of the work), but as much to me about reinforcing Hirst's image, and adding to the sense of the perceived importance and exclusivity of the work, than actually about protecting it from being stolen or damaged. But then when you finally got past all the security and flashiness and got a look at it, it was all a bit of a let-down, hence, for me at least, the centre being empty. Eliza
creativereview
2007-07-05 11:45:16

Of course Hirsts attention is driven by his perceived celebrity, but that was fuelled by him producing interesting work that the media (yourself included) feel passionate enough about to concentrate on. Lets not forget his art caught our attention before the celebrity. He’s not a ‘famous for being famous’ Paris Hilton figure and has value beyond being pissed at the Groucho in the 90s.

But in essence, I think what your saying is that because Hirst is a famous artist, and as such a celebrity, who has done a well publicised piece of art that attracts large numbers of people to come and see it, there was a big queue to get in. And though you acknowledge this and the performance aspect of the installation you also resented it too. Then you reached the end of the queue to look at the art after all that, you didn’t like it as much as you thought you should, so the skull was about empty celebrity?

How would you have felt looking at it without the crowds do you think?

Also, The fact his work sells for more and more has nothing to do with whether his art has progressed or not or any criticism of it. Arts commercial value and art criticism are not always close bedfellows. The hedge fund zillionaires that drive the market don’t care if a critic pans his work, they only care about making money, which even before this exhibition meant buying a Hirst meant turning a good profit.
Rich
2007-07-05 13:37:37

It is, what we make it.
lee.colwill
2007-07-05 16:14:43

Christoph Steinmeyer
Disco Inferno
2002

http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/reviews/robinson/robinson11-1-14.asp
MLA
2007-07-10 10:24:55

And now, this:

http://www.ad-i.co.uk/2007/07/15/damien-hirsts-diamond-skull-trashed-by-artist/
creativereview
2007-07-16 14:14:15

Should we not demand more from our art? Is the creative act not one that resists, challenges and provokes the parameters? Does not truly great art go beyond sensation (finite) and towards a notion of the universal (infinite)?

In the 1983 film 'Trading Places' a beggar and hustler named 'Billy Ray Valentine' finds his social circumstances greatly changed, placing him into a position of apparent great wealth and control of a commodities brokerage firm, Duke & Duke. The ascending shift in BRV's socio-economic position inversely mirrors that of respected Duke & Duke senior employee 'Louis Winthorpe III'. As the title suggests, the two economic poles of society have shifted and we are witness to that circumstance. But, this position has not been created by chance, circumstance, perseverance, intelligence or any such struggle or endeavour. From the outset we, the audience, are aware that it was the of two immensely wealthy brothers, Mortimer and Randolph Duke (the partners of Duke & Duke) that have constructed this situation, as part of a wager on the nature versus nurture argument.

Is it possible to view the simple narrative of this film as a way of understanding the situation of the Artist and the Dealer in general, and the particular situation that was/is the YBA's? Has Damien not found himself in a place where the market dictates his art/istic “value”, and he is now a willing victim of a devious collusion? If so then the truly worrying aspect of this moment is how we find the artist, dealer, and the situation (capital) all comfortably benefitting each other in overlapping cycles of discourse. Thus Hirst et al, are merely replicating the appearance of art/ist as IT IS (conservative), rather than pursuing what IT COULD BE (truly radical).

Therefore would it not be necessary to locate the functions that control the limit? We could ask “What is the order that dictates all orders?”. But rather than answering with liberal notions of our own bodily death (finite) we could propose the mechanism that distorts all human relations is one of domination (infinite), our present incarnation being the domination of the profit motive. Thus to challenge our present means to challenge this principle-not in naive, immature, uncritical fashion, in which the order of domination remains (e.g. the puritanical posturing and righteous judgement advocated by many creatives are merely the appearance of rebellion and lack any provocative content (see First Things First Manifesto, Adbusters etc.)), but methods that reveal the relations of power and the true interests of our time.

One need only look at the emerging technologies and strategies (such as; DTP, peer-to-peer networks, file transfers, ‘pirating’, copyleft licensing etc.) that challenge established hierarchical structures. These economically aggressive regimes in turn seek counter measures (lobbying governments, threatening users with court action, deploy police outside of their remit) that reveal their true interest; the control of lives, so as to predict futures with finer and finer accuracy, in order that new markets can be created and earnings increased.
MLA
2007-07-20 14:35:10

The exhibition didn't sound like a nice experience, feeling like sheep as if you were waiting to go into a night club.

I can't help but feel disheartened to hear that art exhibitions can be so established and regime like.

Still the art itself from Hirst nearly always makes me ponder about its meaning, or its shock scale and subject matter.

I think it's great to have an artist to really get the truth out in the open in a country that masquerades with shallowness and establishment.

My only problem with Hirst's work is that a lot of the time it's made by other people, which sits a little uncomfortable with me. Especially with paintings as paintings are very personal in the style, and when I look at them the first thing I think is this isn't really a Hirst.
Marfu
2008-10-16 17:03:44

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