Is Damien Hirst's Reputation Going Up in Flames?
By Esme Franks
I am sure Damien Hirst’s is a name you recognise almost immediately. However, if this is not the case, I welcome you to an artist whose work exists to shock and provoke those who stand in front of it.
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Damien Hirst was first discovered by art collector Charles Saatchi and defined as a YBA: Young British Artist. In 1997 the YBA’s work was placed under one roof at the Sensation Exhibition. The word ‘shocking’ does not come close to describing the exhibition, with the BBC going as far as to call it an amalgamation of “gory images of dismembered limbs and explicit pornography.” Hirst’s work, which drew the most attention, was his 1971 The Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, consisting of a 14ft tiger shark suspended in a tank filled with formaldehyde, exploring the liminality of our mortal existence. Dark, some may say? Definitely. However, it is no secret that Hirst’s work, including his most recent exhibit ‘The Currency’ at his own Newport Street Gallery, has not diverged from this well-beaten track.
It could be said that an NFT, ‘neft’ or ‘non-fungible token’ could not be further from a dead animal “rotting in its tank on the other side of the Thames.” And yet, I would argue the opposite. NFTs are defined as unique cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain and cannot be replicated - in other words, a digital artwork. In July 2021 Hirst demanded buyers who bought pieces from his latest collection to choose either the physical artwork or the NFT representing it, and hence decide between monetary or aesthetic value. Hirst’s burning of the physical artworks underlines his support of digital artwork; he states that “a lot of people think I’m burning millions of dollars of art but I’m not,” he is in fact “completing the transformation of these physical artworks into NFTs.”
This compulsion to destroy seems to have taken hold of the art world during the last few decades. From Banksy’s shredding of Girl With Balloon at auction in 2018, to Rauschenberg’s Erased de Kooning, and even Abramovic’s dramatic Rhythm 0, where she invited the public to do whatever they wished using 72 objects, there has always been an obsession, even a fascination, with the idea that a reductive process could ironically be used to create art. This is arguably the concept that Hirst is exploring, creating an oxymoronic performance piece through burning traditional, physical art.
However radical and exciting Hirst’s work becomes, critics have argued that this time he has gone too far. “It’s almost like Damien Hirst is so out of touch with the real world that he’s basically transcended to another pane of existence, populated only by oligarchs and the once-edgy artists they collect,” wrote TimeOut’s Eddy Frankel. This is perhaps true; while the world is experiencing unprecedented levels of global warming (although the trading company assures the stoves are “virtually smokeless”), as well as a severe cost of living crisis, Hirst is burning millions of pounds of art for ‘effect’; about 9.7 million, to be exact.
It is difficult to understand if Hirst is simply looking for a reaction from the world or if he is socially commenting on where value lies within our modern society - perhaps both. However, if it was up to me, those pieces would be admired in a gallery, not contained in a digital chip or lying in a pile of ashes.
Bibliography
Buck, Louisa, The Art Newspaper, “Non-Fireproof Tokens: Damien Hirst Burns His Own Paintings.” October 11, 2022. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/10/11/non-fireproof-tokens-damien-hirst-burns-his-own-paintings
Frankel, Eddy, TimeOut London “Damien Hirst Is Going to Burn a Load of His Paintings.” July 26, 2022, https://www.timeout.com/london/news/damien-hirst-is-going-to-burn-a-load-of-his-paintings-072622
McIntosh, Steve, BBC News. 2022. “Damien Hirst Burns His Own Art after Selling NFTs,” October 11, 2022, sec. Entertainment & Arts. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63218704