ART CITIES:Hong Kong-Damien Hirst
The most prominent member the Young British Artists, who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s, Damien Hirst has shocked and surprised the art world with his unusual works, including glass displays of dead animals and medicine cabinet sculptures. His varied practice explores the complex relationships between art, religion, science, life and death.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gagosian Gallery Archive
In the exhibition “Visual Candy and Natural History”, are on presentation a selection of Damien Hirst’s paintings and sculptures from the early- to mid-1990s. The exhibition juxtaposes the colorful abstractions of his “Visual Candy” paintings with the clinical forms of his “Natural History” sculptures. The “Visual Candy” paintings allude to movements including Impressionism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, while the “Natural History” sculptures reflect the visceral realities of scientific investigation through minimalist design. Despite their stark formal differences, the two series were made during the same period and share conceptual foundations: an exploration of the relationships between pleasure and pain, transience and permanence, logic and emotion. In the “Visual Candy” paintings, the saturated hues of bubblegum pinks, acid greens and bold blues merge and overlap in loose ovals of thick impasto or repetitive, pointillist-style blots. The paintings were made between 1992 and 1994. The works showcase the ways in which Damien Hirst used the signifier of candy during the early 1990’s, exploring questions of pure aesthetics. Addressing the viewer on a deliberately emotional and instinctive level, these works, abetted by their exuberant titles, such as “Happy Happy Happy” (1993-94), “Wowee Zowee” (1993), and “Super Silly Fun” (1993), the works revel in color and pattern through an informal, nostalgic painting technique, which stands in opposition to the mechanical application of color in Hirst’s spot paintings. It was 1991 when Damien Hirst first began working with the chemical, to develop what has probably become his most iconic body of work. For the “Natural History” series, the artist’s intention was to create a zoo of dead animals, drawing on the fact that the appeal of them lied in their visual impact. The series of works presents animals in vitrines suspended in formaldehyde, these iconic sculptures such as“Myth Explored, Explained, Exploded” (1993-99) or “Analgesics” (1993), aim to recast fundamental questions about the meaning of life and the fragility of biological existence. Hirst looks for an aesthetic beauty in death, often with the realization that beauty itself may depend on cycles of life and the passing away of matter. The exuberance of the “Visual Candy” series of paintings contrasts with the sterility of the “Natural History” sculptures, but the works harmonize when viewed together. The paintings create a sense of comfort against which the full violence of the formaldehyde works can be felt.
Info: Gagosian Gallery, 7/F Pedder Building, 12 Pedder Street, Central, Hong Kong, Duration: 23/11/17-13/1/18, Days & Hours: 11:00-19:00, www.gagosian.com
