I went to the Damien Hirst exhibit at Tate when I was in London for a bit over a month. I went with my boyfriend Kyle, who likes art more than I do surprisingly. His peaceful place where his mind gets quiet is at art galleries, mine are cemeteries. Death is peaceful and quiet, not disturbing. Hirst focused on life and death in this exhibit. Unfortunately photography wasn't allowed. I didn't understand why because it wasn't old paintings that get ruined by the flash of cameras but whatever. These pictures I had to find all over the internet and I've only picked the ones I saw at Tate. He has done many more and different things all over the world.
This was the first photo on the right wall once we walked in. It was very small and not overly intruiging but I'm glad we went over and took a look to see what it was of. At first you think hes crazy like what the hell is he doing next to a dead head laughing?! But then I read in the pamphlet the story behind it which is basically this same thing of him saying quick take the picture quick! cause he didn't want to have his head next to it it was just for a funny photo, so no he isn't a lunatic: "Quick. Quick. Take the photo." This photograph of Hirst at 16 with a severed head was taken at a morgue in Leeds where Hirst tagged along with a friend who was studying microbiology (the branch of biology dealing with the structure, function, uses, and modes of existence of microscopic organisms). By the time he was immersing himself in the world of the human cadaver - he had already built up an impressive collection of books on pathology (the science and course of diseases). As well as being fascinated by the gorier side of the human body, such as burns and wounds he was also interested the work of Francis Bacon, inspired by both to create his own paintings. Hirst maintained that, although he was fascinated by corpses - how they can be both visually horrific and beautiful at the same time - dead bodies still didn’t explain anything about death.
The second huge attraction was an extremely large case full of flies and one half of it had a cows head. When I was there there were just tons of flies flying around in the case and tons dead on the ground around the head. Thats when I knew, hey I really like this Hirst guy. Hes disturbing and he shocks me. I'm what my mom has always called me, shock baby.
The Shark
Black Sheep
Hirst had a room with a black sheep in a tank which I immediately looked at Kyle and he looked at me and we both were thinking the same thing but I said it anyway "Its me!" (I'm the black sheep in my family). On the wall behind the sheep was a gigantic black black circle that took up the whole wall. It was made of flies and that is why I provided the example of another piece hes done but on a smaller scale of the same thing, dead flies.
The Flies
Who’s Afraid of the Dark? is a rectangular canvas coated with a combination of flies and resin. The canvas was primed with black acrylic primer before the dead houseflies and clear resin mixture was poured onto it. This method of application resulted in an uneven surface with different levels and a variation in colour caused by the different fly parts (red, brown, black and white). The painting’s overall colour is a rich brown-black. The resin mixture increases the natural glossiness of the flies, with the result that the surface coating has a sticky appearance reminiscent of tar or toffee.
The Cow
A major eye catcher was the huge tanks of a cow cut in half so you could walk down the middle of the tanks and see perfectly inside of the cow, can't seem to find a good photo of it but this is what the room looked like and on the left is the cow I just explained.
The Walls of Pills
my favorite second favorite part.
These walls were very large and long and he had mirrors set up on them and tiny glass shelves holding these pills. There were tons of them and I love imagining the person setting every single little pill up for this exhibit. He makes such statements about human nature I just love it so, especially when we get to the cigs. But this is my favorite because I relate to it the most. All the medications I've been on and how many pills I take and how they control my life and health and brain just made me connect to this especially because when you are looking at the wall of pills you see yourself too. You and the pills, me and the pills, thats the statement.
The Cigarettes
This "ashtray" was HUGE. Full of cartons and packs and ashes and cigarettes. He was making a parallel between these being the death of people and we turn to ash when we die... something along those lines I can't find the pamphlet at the moment.
they were all unique some had lip stick on them
he had tons of displays of used cigarettes small cases and full walls. Then he had this...
Diamonds
There was a stunning room where the whole room was covered with mirrors and glass shelves like the pills but instead of pills there were 30,000 diamonds. They shone like stars with the lighting they had put on them. Gold on the largest wall and silver and a smaller wall as you walked out. It was truly beautiful.
The Butterflies
My ultimate favorite part of the exhibition was his butterflies, well actually the butterfly room not the butterfly wing mosaics. Pictures don't do any of it justice.
They only allowed a certain amount of people into the room at a time and we were instructed to move slowly and quietly. Kyle and I stayed in this room the longest. I really wanted a butterfly to land on me. They landed on alot of people and they had workers who would come have to take them off of us. I constantly kept asking one of the workers questions and learned alot like how to pick up a butterfly is to not touch the inside of the wings the sides that come up together but the outside of them is how you pick them up and place them elsewhere. I asked her if she would put one on me real quick and take it off but she said she can't unless one lands on me so I waited. Finally I noticed one that looked dead so I asked her how do you know if they are dead? and she looked at this little white one and said oh yes this one isn't going to make it and theres a spider on it, which she took off. So this was my last chance at trying and I said well since its dying can I hold this one? and she said yes and put it in my hand and told me to place the little butterfly back on this wet sponge when I was done and walked away. I was thrilled but very sad for the dying butterfly. For those of you wondering, breeders bring in the butterflies every week and the dead ones (who die naturally!) go to Hirst so he can continue his artwork with their beautiful and diverse wings. My favorite butterfly in this room was a black one with this bright turquoise horizontal stripe across its wings but its right wing was torn up with holes. I think I might get a tattoo of it. I love Elton John and his song Someone Saved My Life Tonight has my favorite lyric "you're a butterfly and butterflies are free to fly, fly away, high away, bye bye" Medical
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he had alot of medical shelves like tons and tons of them. I didn't care much for them or the meaning behind it. One room was full literally full of surgical instruments.
The Last One, The Dove
this one was so beautiful everyone loved looking at it from the front but it was beautiful seeing it from the back with its wings spread upwards and out like its taking flight away from somewhere.
