Week 4- Damien Hirst and the diamond skull.
As we will be at Noho Marae at Awataha in week 4, this blog question is for week 4 and week 5.
Research the art work of Damien Hirst, in particular his work 'For the love of God'(2008), a diamond encrusted skull.
Discuss how Hirst's persona and work relate to the Renaissance concepts of Mercantillism and the (increased) status of the artist.
hi this is jason liu, I think this work (for the love of god) want toeveryone know,when we have life in this would, we can make everythings, like diamonds, money ,car...... but when we dead ,we cant bring anything ,so we need to think about what is inportant when we have life.
ReplyDeleteWhat 'For the Love of God' is.
ReplyDeleteFor the Love of God, it is a diamond encrusted skull. It was just modelled on an 18th century skull, not a real one and it consists of a platinum cast of it and approximately embedded 8,600 diamonds into it. Interestingly, he has used the original teeth into its skull.
How this work relates to the renaissance concepts of mercantilism and (increased) status of the artist.
For the Love of god of his work is simply a skull of the human shape. It is a real skull of human and this form symbolises a horrible and scared thing as it is one of evidence of death. Nevertheless, his work, it looks like as giant accessory shaped skull. Everyone in the world is apparently not able to avoid death in our lives. According to flowing time our bodies are becoming older than before we are.
Hirst has said that it was intended to represent 'the ultimate victory over death'
In this extract, the ultimate victory can be wealth and the social position, He could found out another skull of late but he has made a platinum cast of an 18th century skull. During the 18th century, wealth and power measured by collecting precious metals such as gold and at this time (mercantilism) to show wealth to society. It was increasingly important among the people.
Moreover, liberal arts which taking an idea of artworks as something which can be justified beauty and a luxury product was famous. Artists wanted to become the member of it. Because they believe it would raise their social position.
Wealth by diamonds it related to his work.
In a way Hirst has sort of created an investment piece, the art persona seemingly missing. As beautiful and unreal as it is, however it fails in my opinion to be a successful art piece, because he did not make it himself, it lacks what other artists pass through to their work and thats expression of self, passion and so forth. The questions you ask yourself when you look at a piece generally are not what type of diamonds are those? Whats is its value? And in that it seems to become a contridiction, because thats not what art is about, its not to make the most valuable piece to date. But because it is, everyone knows about it. Thus increasing the status of the artist.
ReplyDeleteI think this work "for the love of god" makes me think about when we dead we can't take anything to after life. I think he would like diamonds to represent beauty and wealth. Skull is representing nothingness or death even you are beauty or wealth in the time being but when you are dead. you are just a skull without diamonds. Thus i think this work he would like to show us Birth,Death and nothingness of after life. However, the value of the work is very high, i think maybe because of diamonds not his art work.
ReplyDelete,601 flawless pavé-laid diamonds, weighing in total 1,106.18 carats (221.24 g),[3] over a platinum cast, cover the entirety of the skull, with the exception of the original teeth of the skull. At the centre of the forehead lies a pear-shaped pink diamond, the centrepiece of the work. So expensive, is that really what art should be?Hirst spent about $20 million USD to create the diamond covered work and put a price tag of $100 million USD on it. this making me feel like he is making this piece for huge amount of profit.The Diamond covered skull by Damien Hirst is a continuation of the artist's exploration of death and the way we react to it
ReplyDelete