For the Love of God, 2007
The power of the artist-as-celebrity is currently in full effect at White Cube gallery’s Mason’s Yard branch, where Damien Hirst’s latest exhibition is nearing the end of its run. Hirst’s influence is such that the exhibition is spread over both of White Cube’s spaces simulatenously (the other being in Hoxton Square) and they are packed full with the usual Hirst-y imagery of birth, death and religion – a series of photo-realist paintings of the birth of Hirst’s youngest son Cyrus by Caesarean section adorn the walls in the upstairs gallery at Mason’s Yard, while the downstairs space has a dissected shark, cow and a sheep frolicking in formaldehyde.