Tate Modern Museum, London
In the late 1980’s, a group of British artists from the Goldsmiths College in London came together and created an exhibition called Freeze, which was held in an old warehouse as well as organized by Damien Hirst [1]. This was start of the Young British Artists era, and these artists became known for the “shock tactics” they used, their unique attitude, as well as their use of throwaway materials[2]. Their new shock-inducing work breathed new life into the British art scene, as each of these artists influenced each other and had very similar skills since most of the initiators of this movement came from the same college. Their eccentric ways launched a new era of artwork that is completely open to the materials that can be used for art, as well as the processes in which this art can be made.
The Freeze exhibition launched Damien Hirst’s career, where he began to shock and surprise the public with his new works of art. Just last year, Hirst had a five-month exhibition at the Tate Modern Museum in London. It opened on April 4th and lasted until September 9th of 2012, and this is the first exhibition where he gathered his key pieces of work from the last twenty years and put it on display[3]. Ann Gallagher was the curator of this exhibition, in which her and Hirst worked together to exhibit Hirst’s early work, his most popular pieces, as well as his latest creations.
The first room of the exhibition showed his early works Boxes 1988, Spot Painting 1986, and 8 Pans 1987, which all displayed different forms and materials of the same combination of colors. The last piece in this room was With Dead Head 1991, which sparked Hirst’s reputation as an artist who is very interested in death. He said in an interview with Tate Modern, “Every art work that has interested me is about death”. He continues to explain how he used to afraid of death, until he realized the only thing worse is decay.
This moves us to the second room, where A Thousand Years 1990 was displayed. This piece of work revealed a decapitated cow head lying on the ground, surrounded by hundreds of flies that were consuming it. This expression of decay and the processes that take place after life show the viewers that although this process is grotesque and makes you want to stay away, there is something that interests you and makes you linger.
Then when you walk into the third room, you are confronted with The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living 1991, which is a large shark with its mouth wide open that is suspended in an enormous tank of teal formaldehyde. Now this piece of work really catches the viewers off guard, because for most people, they have never been up close and personal with a shark before. The fact that you can just walk up to it and stand in front of its open jaw almost gives you a feeling that the shark might come out to eat you. Not only is the shark terrifying, but the gigantic tank of formaldehyde that it sits in is also a fear for most people, as it represents a large body of water that you could potentially drown in.
Fig 1, Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991, Glass, painted steel, silicone, monofilament, shark and formaldehyde, 2170 x 5420 x 1800 mm | 85.5 x 213.4 x 70.9 in. Tate Modern, London. Damienhirst.http://www.damienhirst.com/the-physical-impossibility-of
To follow Hirst’s continued theme of death, the fourth room houses The Acquired Inability to Escape 1991, as well as Crematorium 1996. These were both pieces where Hirst used cigarettes, a leading cause of death in many countries around the world. The large ashtray that is Crematorium 1996, emits a stale stench of old cigarette smoke, that some viewers found to be nauseating, but also intriguing[4]. In a video with both Damien Hirst as well as his curator Ann Gallagher at TATE Modern, he mentions how he used to smoke and didn’t trust anyone who didn’t, until he created these pieces and now “…doesn’t trust anyone who does”. These pieces show his growth and some realizations he had come across during the creation of these pieces.
Rooms five and six are a little different than the previous four rooms. Room five displays In and Out of Love 1991, where there are canvases on the wall with dead butterflies almost trapped on them, as if they accidentally got stuck and struggled until their ultimate death. In this room there is also a table and one each corner there is an ashtray of cigarettes, that plays on the previous room and is a symbol of death even though this doesn’t seem to be the cause of the butterflies loss of life. This takes us to room six, where there are live butterflies flying around and hatching out of canvases instead of getting stuck and dying on them. This brings about a great contrast as well as the beauty of both life and death, as both rooms portray these butterflies in breathtaking manners.
Then you walk into room seven where Pharmacy 1992 is held. But this room almost discombobulates you as you feel like you are walking into an actual pharmacy instead of an art gallery. This links Hirst’s obsession with death to the obsession of human kind with survival, as we are constantly taking medicines to prolong our lives when in our past history we would have died from simple illnesses.
Fig 2, Damien Hirst, Lullaby, the Seasons, 2002, Glass, stainless steel, aluminum, nickel, bismuth and cast resin, colored plaster and plainted pills with dry transfers, 1833 x 2753 x 102 mm | 72.2 x 108.4 x 4 in. Tate Modern, London. Damienhirst. http://www.damienhirst.com/lullaby-the-seasons
This is where we hit a change of pace with Loving in a World of Desire 1996 in room eight. This is a room that kids would actually enjoy since it displays large circular art pieces with vibrant colors as well as a distended beach ball. In room nine, Iodomethane-13c 1999-2001 is installed and this canvas of multi-colored dots follows the bright color trend from the previous room.
There are many more pieces in the last remaining rooms ranging from Doorways to the Kingdom of Heaven 2007, a large stained-glass window made out of dead butterflies, to Black Sun 2004 where from afar it looks like a charcoal black circle, but in reality, if you just step a bit closer, is completely created with the carcasses of dead flies. Although many of
Fig 3, Damien Hirst, Doorways to the Kingdom of Heaven, 2007, Butterflies and household gloss on canvas, 2803 x 1830 mm | 110.4 x 72.1 in (left) | 2943 x 2440 mm | 115.9 x 96.1 in (center) | 2803 x 1930 mm | 110.4 x 72.1 in (right), Tate Modern, London, DamienHirst. http://www.damienhirst.com/doorways-to-the-kingdom-of-hea
Hirst’s art pieces are very shocking and almost sickening, they elicit a response from the viewers that not many pieces of art are capable of. But I believe he balances his unpredictable pieces with beautifully crafted, vibrant pieces that convey the importance of the contrast between life and death and how one cannot be without the other.
Many believe Hirst is just a power-hungry artist who is only interested in the wealth he can acquire from selling his work, but I believe that he sells his work for that much because he believes it is worth that amount. For example For the Love of God 2007, a diamond encrusted skull that is worth around 50 million dollars[5]. But this piece of work is so breath-taking beautiful, and the fact that he did use real diamonds, it doesn’t surprise me that the price for this piece is so high. Artists do have to make a living you know, and I’m sure the materials for piece weren’t cheap.
As for the rest of his pieces, I do not believe any of them were made with easily acquired materials, which must have made them pretty pricey. But this exhibition that shows twenty years of his work in a handful of rooms takes the viewer through a journey of the relationship between life, death, and decay, as well as the afterlife and the uncertainty of it all.
Brown, Delacy. “Damien Hirst at Tate: Repetitive, super-sensationalized science-show
which is strangely enjoyable.” The Daily. May 21, 2012. http://daily-
norm.com/2012/05/21/damien-hirst-at-tate-repetitive-super-sensationalised-
science-show-which-is-strangely-enjoyable/
“Damien Hirst.” TATE Modern. http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-
modern/exhibition/damien-hirst
Wright, Katie. “Damien Hirst at Tate Modern | Prebook or prepare to queue part two.”
Wordpress. April 9, 2012.
http://styleandthensome.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/damien-hirst-at-tate-modern-
prebook-or-prepare-to-queue-part-two/
“Young British Artists (YBAs).” TATE Modern. http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-
resources/glossary/y/young-british-artists
[1] “Young British Artists (YBAs),” TATE Modern, http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/y/young-british-artists
[2] “Damien Hirst,” TATE Modern, http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/Damien-hirst
[3] “Damien Hirst,” TATE Modern, http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/Damien-hirst
[4] Katie, Wright, “Damien Hirst at Tate Modern | Prebook or prepare to queue part two,” Wordpress, April 9, 2012, http://styleandthensome.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/damien-hirst-at-tate-modern-prebook-or-prepare-to-queue-part-two/
[5] Delacy, Brown, “Damien Hirst at Tate: Repetitive, super-sensationalized science-show which is strangely enjoyable,” The Daily, May 21, 2012, http://daily-
norm.com/2012/05/21/damien-hirst-at-tate-repetitive-super-sensationalised-
science-show-which-is-strangely-enjoyable/