Hirst

Matt and I went to see the Damien Hirst exhibition at Tate Modern this evening. I'm still recovering from the £15 per person ticket price! I'm not a huge Hirst fan but its a interesting retrospective of all the key works in one place. A large number you can say 'is this really art?'. Many are interesting more for the objects themselves than the context they are supposed to represent (such as the surgical instruments). The only ones I'm really drawn to are the butterfly pictures. This photo is of 'Doorways to the Kingdom of Heaven' which looks like three huge stained glass church windows. Its made up of thousands of butterfly wings to look like a perfect kaleidoscope but I think it is more a credit to natures symmetry than art. Many of the critic's reviews of the show discuss Hirst making money and looking through the shop you can understand why. A plastic skull covered in streaks of gloss paint sells for £36,800 and a butterfly china plate for £10,500. I'm sure there are people that buy them and are very happy to pay it. There were certainly lots of interesting discussions on the work as we walked around.


Damien Hirst Exhibition, Tate Modern, London