I am going to be speaking about a piece of work by Damien Hirst. Damien Hirst is an English Artist, Entrepreneur and Art collector. He is the most famous member of the group known as the young British artists, his breakthrough an am artist was in the early 1990′s. He is currently the Uk’s richest living artist at the age of 52. He is mainly known for his sculpture “the physical impossible of death in the mind of someone living” published 1991. This is basically a real tiger shark that was caught and murdered in Australia, it is now preserved in formaldehyde in a vitrine. This caused an up raw in animal cruelty because this shark has purely been killed for artwork, but it also got the public’s attention because it hasn’t really been done before. Hirst also has his own “factory” where he creates all his work and all his workers make art for him to sell on in his name and nobody else get credit for his fame. Due to Hirst using a material called Formaldehyde as a preservative, people who lived in the area were concerned because the substance can cause Myeloid Leukaemia. Understandable that people in the area were not impressed by this.
The sculpture is from his newest collection of work called “Treasures from the wreck of the unbelievable” this is currently being presented in the “Punta Della Dogona-Francois Pinault Foundation” in Venice. This collection is new to this year I know this because I went to Venice on a study trip for a few days, I loved this collection of work the only problem is that you don’t know what is real and what isn’t. The collection was first exhibited in this gallery on 09/04 and is soon to be taken way on the 02/12/2017. Some pieces are supposedly made up and placed in the ocean to get a quick picture or small video, so that it comes across as a ship wreck. But then some pieces have been small objects found in the ocean revamped or made bigger. You just don’t know what is actually a true shipwreck piece or what is just a random idea. The piece I am going to be speaking about that I saw was “The minotaur” because this links with Greek Mythology.
“The Minotaur” sculpture was made out of Black Granite and measured at 120.7 x 173.4 x 111.1cm. This sculpture’s simple name makes it sounds like a literal minotaur, but actually it’s a minotaur raping an Athenian virgin. A Minotaur is a Greek myth that is Half man, half bull. This creature was sent as a gift to Minos in order to support him whilst ruling Crete encase it was a struggle at any point. In the booklet I got given at the exhibition, it had a small amount of text that explained the sculpture. Quote from the text “Classical art often Aestheticized such scenes, sanitising any explicit reference to intercourse. In myth, such assaults were partly rationalised by claiming that the god Eros was capable of overpowering bodies and wills at any moment” this is so true how most art nowadays sugar coats what is actually going on and doesn’t reveal the truth and it’s disgusting how their way of getting away with rape is saying that the god Eros would stop it, but he didn’t so that makes rape back in that time period somehow okay.
When seeing the sculpture in person it made me feel very uncomfortable, it was literally a Minotaur raping a woman and there is no other way of putting it without sounding so crude. The amount of detail that went in to this piece was truly amazing, but in the worse possible way. Even down to the way his monstrous penis was being forced into her pure soul, the way she is lay in pain and trying to push it out off her with as much will power as she has left in her, the pain in her face I can imagine the screams that you would be able to hear for miles, the tension in her body being able to see her veins popping through her skin as her virginity is being destroyed. The minotaur sculpture is very sadistic but is the truth and covers the topic of rape, in a very wrong crude way. Hopefully this piece makes people realise what it looks like from the victim’s perspective because they are physically seeing what people worldwide are put through, but this shouldn’t only now trigger people about rape to make them understand it. The actual minotaur is pinning the women arms above her head so she physically can’t push him off her or scratch at him, anything to save her purity.
I feel like Hirst is trying to resemble what it was like for women and the understanding of rape in ancient Greek times, how they believed that one of the gods could control all men and if they would be doing something wrong he would stop them. The minotaur resembles how strong, violent and sexually frustrated men can be. The women show how small and dainty women can be giving of a vibe of fragile and powerless but in a situation like this it doesn’t seem like there wasn’t much she or any women could do. The piece of work isn’t from the time period of Ancient Greece but includes mythology that does. I feel like the minotaur is represented exactly like the mythology describes him.
