ART-TRIBUTE:Damien Hirst–New Religion
The eternal themes of mortality and faith, combined with the fascination with science, technology and consumption, have been in the center of the practice of Damien Hirst. These preoccupations transformed in “New Religion”, a large-scale installation which was exhibited for the first time at the Paul Stolper Gallery in 2005. In this installation the artist put side by side religious imagery with the clinical beauty of pharmaceuticals and the brutal realism of medical procedure.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art Archive
Throughout the course of Damien Hirst’s career, religion has been part of his work. Early medicine cabinets such as “God”, showed an unquestioning belief in scientific rationalism, the conviction that pills can cure you, against the more subjective belief in religion and the redemptive healing power of God. As mentioned by the artist: “I wanted people to think about the combination of science and religion basically. People tend to think of them as two very separate things, one cold and clinical, the other emotional and loving and warm. I wanted to leap over these boundaries and give you something that looks clinical and cold but has all the religious, metaphysical connotations, too”. “New Religion” is a manifestation of his critical outlook on a world determined by the economic quest for constant economic growth. In order to attain this goal, everything can be bought or sold. Financial success has become the measure of quality. Medicine has become the religion of the rich people and they believe that the technological progress will make them: better, eternally young, maybe even immortal. Science is necessary to achieve those objectives. Making use of religious imagery, titles and associations he transformed them through art, he bridges the theoretical gap between science and religion, rephrasing questions regarding the way the two are perceived. The installation is transforming the exhibition space into a kind of chapel that also maintains the feeling of a clinical, cold and sterilized environment, characteristic of his work. It contains 44 silkscreen prints, and 4 sculptures that make “New Religion” moving from the Creation of the World, to the Stations of the Cross and towards the Last Judgment. They surround an altar holding a cross studded with pills like gems, a child’s skull, a large marble pill and a heart wrapped in barbed wire and pierced by needles and razor blades.
Info: New Religion, Curator: Anna Szynwelska, Assistant Curator: Paul Stolper & Linsey Young, Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Laznia 1, Jaskółcza st, Dolne Miasto, Gdańsk, Duration:24/7-27/9/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed, Fri-Sun: 12:00-18:00, The: 12:00-20:00, www.laznia.pl
