Damien Hirst's 8601 fine diamond encrusted sculpture For The Love Of God, which cost 14 million pounds to create and sold for a mare 50 million pounds to a unknown investment group, making it the most expensive piece of artwork ever created. The piece has become very controversial because of the media used and where Hirst sourced these fine diamonds from.Hirst recalls his mindset before creating the piece “I remember thinking it would be great to do a diamond one — but just prohibitively expensive,” he recalls. “Then I started to think — maybe that’s why it is a good thing to do. Death is such a heavy subject, it would be good to make something that laughed in the face of it.” But he states after creating the piece and thinking about the controversy created over the blood diamond trade in Africa he found himself looking like a villain. “That’s when you stop laughing,” Hirst says. “You might have created something that people might die because of. I guess I felt like Oppenheimer or something. What have I done? Because it’s going to need high security all its life.”
First of all I have to say I am all for Africa. As soon as I get my degree I'm there. But on this piece of work my hat goes off to Hirst. The controversy and criticism he has recieved from this artwork is incredible. Maybe the profit of this piece should have been used to aid Africa, but the skull on its own is a masterpiece. The ideas that Hirst was attempting to portray are definitely obvious. The piece doesn't make me think about Hirst on his quest for fame and fortune but more of a celebration of human life coming and going in and out of this world. Fine, the 14 millions pounds worth of diamonds may seem excessive but what other media would have been adequate other than the most exquisite stone known to man. It's what every human being is after before death - success, which is usually measured by wealth which is where the stones come in. Shining a little light on death is a very powerful concept; which through the skull Hirst has grasped perfectly.
I think people need to look at skull as a piece of artwork first, then discuss the moral ethics behind it.
