| 达明安•赫斯特 (Damien Hirst)
达明安•赫斯特1965年出生于布里斯托尔，从小在英格兰北部的利兹长大。1983-1985年，在利兹Jacob Kramer艺术学院学习，1986-1989年，就读于伦敦哥德史密斯学院。1994年，他获得柏林德国艺术交流中心国际艺术家项目的提名，1995年获“透纳奖”。如今，达明安•赫斯特在英国格洛斯特郡生活和工作。
在1988年，赫斯特策划了展览“冰冻（Freeze）”。这个展览包括了赫斯特自己以及他在哥德史密斯学院的同学们的作品，赫斯特也因此受到了普遍关注。这个传奇的展览传递着这样一种讯息——位于伦敦东部的港口住宅区，在废弃的工业建筑里那些仓库大小的空间内，艺术家们自己策划的一系列的展览的开始。这些展览被作为英国20世纪90年代艺术家策划的展览里先锋运动和进步的绝佳例子。达明安•赫斯特的首次个展是1991年在当代艺术中心举办的“内部事务”[Internal Affairs]. 1994年，他还在伦敦蛇形画廊策划了展览“有些疯了，有些逃了”[Some Went Mad, Some Run Away].
赫斯特对科学和艺术的联系也一直很感兴趣。他常常往自己的作品中注入医学的元素，比如药品，药柜和药片等；他的“点”画模拟的事医学颜色代码。赫斯特也常常使用日常生活中的素材，比如办公桌椅和香烟，这在作品《对逃亡的后天无能》[The Acquired Inability to Escape,1992]里可以看得出来。尽管作品里 并没有人类作为主角，但却暗含着人的缺席。我们面对的是一个人造环境，简洁干净的现代玻璃窗的设计同样提醒着我们：这是一个水族馆或者是动物园。尽管，赫斯特通过玻璃窗的香烟想要展示的是逃离的概念，但因为玻璃窗式密封的，所以从这个白领存在的空间里逃出去是不可能的。一把转椅和一张桌子，这种典型的办公用品元素，被用来当作人类存在过的标志，就像人类学的手工艺品。赫斯特通过这件作品，也在暗示生活不能在一个贫瘠和人造的环境里，被简化的只具有功能性。
赫斯特对于生物生命的有限性也十分感兴趣。他将动物的尸体浸泡在甲醛溶液里的作品尤为著名，《迷途的羔羊》[Away from the Flock,1994]就是其中之一，那是一只泡在甲醛溶液里的羔羊。在作品《女孩，喜欢男孩，喜欢男孩喜欢女孩，就像女孩喜欢男孩》[Girls, Who Like Boys, Who Like Boys, Who Like Girls, Like Girls, Like Boys,2006]里，画的表层装饰布满了非常漂亮的彩蝶，不过也有让人忧虑的剃须刀。赫斯特在此提醒观众的是生命的短暂。虽说蝴蝶让画的表层变得非常漂亮，但是剃须刀让人联想到的是“镜中花月”的画面，它提醒我们危险的存在和物质美的非永久性。作品的名称取自1995年英国著名流行乐队“模糊”乐队的一首歌《男孩和女孩》，画布上的色彩突出的是生理吸引的复杂性。
赫斯特是国际公认的英国最具影响力的艺术家。近来，他开始致力于在伦敦和格洛斯特郡拓展新的展览空间，以此来推动当代艺术的发展。同时，他打算在格洛斯特郡建立一个博物馆。
Damien Hirst was born in Bristol,1965 and grew up in Leeds, in the North of England. He studied at Jacob Kramer College of Art, Leeds, 1983-5 and then at Goldsmiths College, London 1986-9. He was nominated for the DAAD International Artists Programme in Berlin in 1994 and won the Turner Prize in 1995. Damien Hirst lives and works in Gloucestershire, Great Britain.
Hirst came to public attention in 1988 when he curated “Freeze”, an exhibition containing his work as well as that of fellow Goldsmith College students. This marked the beginning of a series of exhibitions curated by artists in warehouse sized spaces in disused industrial buildings in the docklands area of East London. These exhibitions are often cited as prime examples of the enterprising movement and rise in artist curated shows in Britain throughout the 90s. Damien Hirst’s first public solo exhibition “Internal Affairs” was held at the ICA in 1991. He also curated “Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away” at the Serpentine Gallery, London in 1994.
Hirst has always had an interest in the relation between science and art. He often incorporates elements from the medical world in his work, such as medical drugs, medicine cabinets and pills - his ‘spot’ paintings mimic pharmaceutical colour codings. However, Hirst has also frequently used everyday materials in his works such as office furniture and cigarettes as in The Acquired Inability to Escape (1992). Here although there is no human protagonist, their absence is implied. We are faced with an artificial environment, a sleekly designed modernist vitrine which equally reminds us of an aquarium or zoo enclosure. Hirst shows that despite attempted escapism through, in this case, smoking cigarettes, because the vitrine is sealed, breaking away from the traps of a white collared worker’s existence is impossible. Typical office furniture elements - a swivel chair and a desk, are displayed as traces of human presence, like anthropological artefacts. Hirst also implies that life cannot be reduced to mere functionality, within a sterile and artificial environment.
Hirst is also interested in the limits of biological life, and is well known for his work with animals preserved in formaldehyde. One of his most celebrated pieces, Away from the Flock (1994), features a lamb preserved in the fluid. In Girls, Who Like Boys, Who Like Boys, Who Like Girls, Like Girls, Like Boys (2006) the paint surface is encrusted with stunning coloured butterflies, as well as more disquieting devices such as razors. Here Hirst reminds the viewer of the transience of life. Despite the butterflies’ beautiful veneer, the razors create associations with ‘vanitas’ imagery, reminding us of the danger and impermanence of material beauty. The work’s title is an adaptation of lyrics from a famous 1995 pop song British band Blur, Boys and Girls, the colours of the canvases underlining the reference to the complexities of physical attraction.
Hirst has had extensive international visibility as Britain’s most influential artist. Recently he has taken to promoting contemporary art through fostering new exhibition spaces in London as well as in Gloucestershire, where he intends on opening a museum. |
