Photo 1: Works by Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Angus Fairhurst installed at Tate Britain. For full caption details see below.
Carolyn Bandel enters a new Eden at Tate Britain
"A shocking perspective on inhumanity" and "see how artists can make a fortune largely by offending common decency" were some of the comments when the Saatchi Gallery, showing mainly Damien Hirst’s and Sarah Lucas’, opened last April.
And shock was what we expected after all the turmoil surrounding Damien Hirst last year. What we got was just another bizarre fish tank. The new exhibition In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida at Tate Britain, running until May 31, 2004, proves: even a Damien Hirst can become a bit ordinary.
The title In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, a mutated reference to the biblical theme of the Garden of Eden, is taken from the 1968 recording by the psychedelic rock band Iron Butterfly.
Legend has it that the lead singer was so drunk when he first announced the song’s title that one of the band members wrote down phonetically the words 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'.
Photo 2: Works by Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Angus Fairhurst installed at Tate Britain. For full caption details see below.
The exhibition is the joint vision of three Young British Artists (YBAs), Angus Fairhurst, Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas and the title, very potently, sets the scene for an exhibition full of attention-grabbing and interestingly distorted art.
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida explores themes of life, love, sex, death and destruction. At the same time though, it becomes clear that all three artists have a very distinctive style, all using metaphor in a different way.
Clarrie Wallis, one of the curators of the exhibition explains, "Even though they are very distinctive in their style, they share a certain kind of humour in which much is a reference to something else".
Photo 3: Works by Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Angus Fairhurst installed at Tate Britain. For full caption details see below.
Hirst uses vitrines for his most famous routine, the pickled-animal-in-a-tank, though this time he has found a very particular animal to pickle – a mutant six legged calf. The work’s title (Hirst, like Lucas and Fairhurst, has always been very good with titles) is In His Infinite Wisdom.
The only truly fascinating work Hirst made for this exhibition is a large circular work in which thousands of dead flies create a thickly encrusted surface, entitled Black Sun 2004.
Even though Hirst might have failed to progress, Sarah Lucas and Angus Fairhurst are the ones to make this a truly interesting exhibition. Lucas, for instance, uses commonplace throwaway items such as pizza delivery flyers and cigarettes to create unexpectedly finely crafted objects.
She has created a sculpture of Christ on the cross with a twist – Christ’s body is constructed entirely of cigarettes and placed in front of the flag of St George – entitled Christ You Know It Ain’t Easy.
Photo 4: Works by Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Angus Fairhurst installed at Tate Britain. For full caption details see below.
Fairhurst, who at 38 is the baby of the YBAs, is the least known of the group. But, as Gregor Muir, another curator of the exhibition, puts it, "Fairhurst seems to be the hinge between the two other artists, as he has worked with both of them separately".
His sculpture of a huge gorilla studying his reflection in a pool beautifully depicts the moment when self-consciousness dawns. Another ape is contemplating his arm, which has somehow become detached and fallen on the ground.
The show amounts to a relaxed fantasia on the fallen human condition, as seen by these three prominent artists. Their implicit agreement is an approach that is humorous, but also black. They are all determinedly grim in outlook. Lucas remarked in an interview, "I think the world is pretty shabby,".
CAPTIONS
Photo 1:
Back Wall: Angus Fairhurst, Underdone/Overdone Wallpaper 2004 Wallpaper Dimensions variable © the artist/Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London Rear Centre: Damien Hirst, Standing Alone on the Precipice and Overlooking the Arctic Wastelands of Pure Terror 1999-2000 Stainless steel and glass cabinet with plaster, metal and resin pills 236.5 x 871 x 11cm © the artist/Private Collection Middle left: Angus Fairhurst, Undone 2004 Bronze 61 x 274 x 137cm © the artist/Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London Middle right: Angus Fairhurst , Mnemonic Table 1997-2004 Table, flowerpots, ivy, honeysuckle, bindweed, bramble 109 x 188 x 71cm © the artist/Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London Foreground: Sarah Lucas, Cnut 2004 Jesmonite sandwich, concrete figure, cigarette, paint, stainless steel toilet, plastic seat 60 x 244 x 190cm Figure: 87 x 102 x 43cm © the artist/Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, LondonPhoto 2: Back Wall: Angus Fairhurst, Underdone/Overdone Wallpaper 2004 Wallpaper Dimensions variable © the artist/Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London Rear left: Sarah Lucas, The Man Who Sold the World 2004 Juggernaut, newspaper, shellac, cast polyurethane, acrylic paint, electric motor 325 x 470 x 550cm © the artist/Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London Rear right: Angus Fairhurst, Four Billboards, Body and Text Removed 2003 Collaged billboard posters 330 x 635.5cm © the artist/CourtesySadie Coles HQ, London Foreground: Damien Hirst, The Hat Makes the Man (After Max Ernst) 2004 Acrylic paint on bronze 209 x 365.4 x 300cm © the artist/Courtesy Jay Jopling, London
Photo 3: Installation at Tate Britain Wallpaper: Damien Hirst, Butterfly wallpaper 2003 Ink printed on paper 144.8 x 609.6cm © the artist/Courtesy Jay Jopling, London Rear Centre: Damien Hirst, The Pursuit of Oblivion 2004 (detail) Acrylic and steel vitrine, water, sides of beef, cow's head, stainless steel table with butcher's block, butcher's rack and meat hooks, skull, broken mirror, sausages, knives, dustbin, crash helmet, umbrella, stainless steel bucket, wine bottles, glass of water, pills, frying pan, anatomical model brain, hourglass and live fish 436 x 280 x 170cm © the artist/Courtesy Jay Jopling, London Middle: Sarah Lucas, Spam 2004 Polystyrene, Jesmonite, paint, wax 92 x 63 x 122cm © the artist /Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London Foreground: Angus Fairhurst, The Birth of Consistency 2004 Resin and mirrored acrylic 91 x 300 x 152cm © the artist /Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London
Photo 4: Back Wall: Angus Fairhurst, Underdone/Overdone Wallpaper 2004 Wallpaper Dimensions variable © the artist/Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London Rear left: Angus Fairhurst, Mnemonic Table 1997-2004 Table, flowerpots, ivy, honeysuckle, bindweed, bramble 109 x 188 x 71cm © the artist/Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London Centre: Sarah Lucas, Cnut 2004 Jesmonite sandwich, concrete figure, cigarette, paint, stainless steel toilet, plastic seat 60 x 244 x 190cm Figure: 87 x 102 x 43cm © the artist/Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London Wall - Right: Sarah Lucas, Pizza Wallpaper 2004 Wallpaper dimensions variable © the artistCourtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London Wall - Right Centre: Damien Hirst, Night Falls Fast 2004 Flies and resin on canvas Diameter 365.8cm © the artist/Courtesy Jay Jopling, London
