Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to EyeContact. You are invited to respond to reviews and contribute to discussion by registering to participate.

JH

Hirst Hits Auckland

AA
View Discussion
Damien Hirst's The Dead and The Souls at Gow Langsford Damien Hirst, Beautiful Apollo Idealisation Painting, 2008, household gloss on canvas, 1829 mm diameter Damien Hirst, The Dead Island Copper SilverGloss, 2009, 2 colour foil block on 300gsm Arches 88 archival paper, 720 mm x 510 mm. Damien Hirst, The Dead Turquoise PanamaCopper, 2 colour foil block on 300gsm Arches 88 archival paper, 720 mm x 510 mm. Damien Hirst, The Hours Spin Skull, 2009, household gloss on plastic skull Includes The Hours' latest CD album, See the Light, 210 x 140 x 140 mm  Damien Hirst, The Souls III Raven Black Silver GlossTopaz, 2010, 3 colour foil block on 300gsm Arches 88 archival paper, 720 x 510 mm Damien Hirst, The Souls IV Oriental Gold Burgundy Leaf Green, 2010, 2 colour foil block on 300gsm Arches 88 archival paper, 720 x 510 mm

This show doesn't show him at his most thrilling but does reveal what a clever deviser of sumptuous images Hirst is (when he chooses) even though his reputation was initially based on conceptual projects that were often optically repulsive or ideationally disturbing.

Auckland

 

Damien Hirst
The Dead and The Souls

 

20 July - 27 August 2011

In my view Damien Hurst is a far more interesting maker of large three dimensional free-standing sculpture than he is a painter, yet this show - a painting, lots of prints, and small objects in small containers - with its ginormous international art market prices, is worth checking out. It doesn’t show him at his most thrilling but  does reveal what a clever deviser of sumptuous images he is (when he chooses) even though his reputation was initially based on conceptual projects that were often optically repulsive or ideationally disturbing.

The million dollar circular Beautiful Apollo Idealisation Painting cunningly blends his fairground ‘spin’ methodology with two references to Warhol - Andy’s skull and camouflage series. He seems to have amalgamated silkscreening technology with turntable centrifugalism, so that the speeding dribbles inside the skull are distinct from the circular field enclosing it. It is a Warhollian homage - yet still very Hirstian with its distinctive radiating splats.

He continues a much explored theme of the transience of existence (that all skulls suggest, but adding metempsychosis) with his large butterflies on paper, glowing pearlescent colours that shimmer and flicker. The colour combinations vary. Some are obvious and corny. Others which are monochromatic or black and white, are subtle.

The mounted real butterflies encased in boxes are fascinating in the way he has used paint to stroke the edges of their wings and bodies, a sort of tender caress that also seems to stick the fragile forms viciously down on to the mount - like flypaper. Love and hate together.

Hirst’s other smallish sculptures consists of a vertical vitrine of several plastic skulls covered in garish paint, with a music CD case jammed in their cranium and watch dials in their eye sockets. Quite humorous though not much chromatic or metaphoric nuance here, they delight in being gross. I go for the greyish-brown butterflies on paper I think. You have to look hard to see the colour variations but the closely matched tones make them special.

 

John Hurrell

Print | Facebook | Twitter | Email

 

Recent Posts by John Hurrell

JH
Jae Hoon Lee, Mother and Child, 2024, inkjet on smooth pearl. 1500 x 1500 mm

Looking Through (or At) Jae Hoon Lee

IVAN ANTHONY GALLERY

Auckland

 

Jae Hoon Lee
Internal Landscape Part II


16 March 2024 -13 April 2024

JH
Outside installation of part of Shiraz Sadikeen's The Natural Rate, at Treadler. Photo: Alex North.

Sadikeen @ Treadler

TREADLER

Auckland


Shiraz Sadikeen
The Natural Rate


8 March 2024 - 23 March 2024

 

JH
Still from Marcus Coates, The Directors: Lucy (2022) Single channel HD video on loop, projection, 21 min, 24 sec--⁠presented at Yellow Brick Road, courtesy of Artangel.

Attempting to Describe the Experience of Psychosis

Te Tuhi /Auckland Arts Festival

5 inner city sites


Marcus Coates
The Directors


24 February - 24 March 2024

JH
Ava Seymour, Manhole, 2023, Maribu solvent screen-printing ink on aluminium, 1120 x 910 mm, unique.

Maternal Appurtenances

COASTAL SIGNS

Auckland

 

Ava Seymour
Heels of Mothers


14 March - 13 April 2024