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Right: The Explosion Exalted
There is something really creepy about Damien Hirst. And it is really providential that his Sotheby's multi-million auction is taking place when markets around the world are reeling. Will anyone at Sotheby's stop and think?
I really don't have any gripes if wealthy art "connoisseurs" buy his rubbish by the billion dollars, but journalists who cover his periodic entry into the limelight should do so with caution and skepticism.
I realized how awful his work is when I tried to look at it with a cup of coffee in hand. I couldn't drink my coffee. All those dead animals soaked in formaldehyde.
But, beyond the visceral repulsion, Hirst is playing the perennial contemporary artist's game of acting god-like.
Many of his pieces are titled after Biblical or religious references. But with a twist. His most cynical piece "Away from the Flock" is of a sheep suspended in formaldehyde. This poor, dead creature which Hirst has hijacked and frozen for eternity in his glass prison reeks of Hirst's cruelty. Yes he may be god, but he is a bully to go with it. And think of the hundreds (thousands?) of dead butterflies he used to make his stained-glass imitation "The Explosion Exalted."
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design "The Explosion Exalted"
Some writer said that he's running to the bank laughing. But I don't think so. There is something empty and nihilistic about his work, without any joy or uplifting quality.
But the best we can do is to expose him, whenever he pops up to make the headline news for a day or two.