High Art
So here’s my take on Hirst’s latest piece, “For the Love of God”...
But before I get to that, some details about the piece.
- Platinum cast male skull from 18th century Europe (teeth are real)
- 8,601 Diamonds covering every visible surface
- Pear-shaped pink diamond ($8,000,000) set into the skull’s forehead
- blah blah blah
Anyways, upon unveiling this piece Hirst comments, “I hope it makes the people who see it feel good, that it’s uplifting, that it takes your breath away … I wouldn’t mind if it happened to my skull after my death.” Well it does take your breath away, and he may have meant what he said, but that’s not what this “thing” is about. It’s expensive (oh, it’s priced at $98,000,000 by the way, for those of you that were thinking of buying it) and has some sort of historical reference; inspired by ancient turquoise-encrusted ceremonial Aztec skulls, plus it’s actually is an “old” skull, which is the part that really cracks me up.
So, historical reference + mega price + personality = “high art” these days, and Hirst has put all that into this skull and made a mockery of that equation. It’s just one big expensive metaphor. Well, that’s how I see it.
What he really wouldn’t mind is, if he found Kanye West dangling the thing from his neck to add to his collection of super hyped bling.
Monday, July 16, 2007
