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- Damien Hirst, the United Kingdom’s richest living artist according to the 2020 Sunday Times’ Rich List, has produced some of the most controversial artworks of recent years, which includes the much-debated series of formaldehyde sculptures with dead animals.
About the Formaldehyde
- It is a colourless, strong-smelling, flammable chemical that is produced industrially and used in building materials such as particleboard, plywood, and other pressed-wood products.
It is found in:
- Resins used in the manufacture of composite wood products.
- Building materials and insulation, Fertilizers and pesticides.
- Household products such as glues, permanent press fabrics, paints and coatings, lacquers and finishes and paper products.
- Preservatives used in some medicines, cosmetics and other consumer products.
- When dissolved in water it is called formalin, which is commonly used as an industrial disinfectant, and as a preservative in funeral homes and medical labs.
- It can also be used as a preservative in some foods and in products, such as antiseptics, medicines and cosmetics.
Its use in Preservation
- The chemical formaldehyde is used to preserve bodies.
- It changes the tissue on a molecular level so that the bacteria can’t feed on the tissue.
- The fixative 10% buffered formalin is commonly used to preserve tissues for routine histology in many labs.
When did Damien Hirst first come to attention?
- One of the leading names of the collective Young British Artists (YBA), Hirst was still pursuing his graduation in fine art from the prestigious Goldsmiths College in London when he became the main organiser of the group’s exhibition, Freeze, that took place in 1988 at an empty Port Authority warehouse in London.
- He soon caught the attention of British advertiser and collector Charles Saatchi, who in 1990 bought Hirst’s A Thousand Years (1990)—a depiction of the cycle of birth and death through a glass vitrine that had maggots hatching inside a white box, turning into flies and feeding on a severed cow’s head kept on the floor.
When did Hirst embark on the formaldehyde series?
- Even as a teenager studying art in Leeds, Hirst would reportedly draw corpses preserved in formaldehyde.
- His first actual installation came early on in his career when Saatchi paid him £50,000 for any work he desired.
- The outcome was The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991), with a tiger shark in formaldehyde in a vitrine.
- The shark had been caught by a commissioned fisherman in Australia and the work received instant attention, even fetching Hirst a Turner Prize nomination.
- The ongoing exhibition at Gagosian includes, among others, Beginning with The Impossible Lovers (1991), a cabinet filled with glass jars with preserved cow’s organs, I Am (1995) that has a sheep, and Myth Explored, Explained, Exploded (1993) with a small shark cut into three.
Criticism
- Though Hirst’s works using animals have been criticised by animal rights activists, the global art market itself is divided.
- While some animals were dead before Hirst decided to use them, others were killed for his art.
- In 2012, Hirst’s exhibition In and Out of Love at Tate Modern had two windowless rooms filled with live butterflies, later reported that more than 9,000 butterflies died during the 23-week exhibition.
- In 2017, the art market website artnet estimated that Hirst had used almost one million animals for his works.
What has Hirst said about the series?
- Several art historians and critics have pointed out that though controversial, Hirst’s works have precedence in art—among others artists such as Salvador Dali used live snails in The Rainy Taxi, and Joseph Beuys’ Fat Chair and other sculptures were made from fat.
- Hirst himself has not been bogged down by criticism and mortality has remained a central theme in his work. In a 2008 interview with Anthony Haden-Guest for interviewmagazine.com, the artist stated, “Death’s just something that inspires me, not something that pulls me down.
- I used to get called morbid at school. I have always loved horror films; I like being frightened.”
Question:
Which of these metals is commonly used in tanning of leather?
- Phosphorous
- Indium
- Manganese
- Chromium
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