“Mother and Child Divided”
‘It’s amazing what you can do with an E in A-Level art, a twisted imagination and a chainsaw.’ – Damien Hirst acceptance speech after winning the Turner Prize 1995.
In Channel 4’s entertaining documentary about Hirst’s current retrospective at London’s Tate Modern the controversial artist looked disconcertingly like Phil Collins and was keen to show that he’s still an ordinary diamond geezer.
His obsession with death is obvious from his works although he revealed that he has never seen a dead body of anybody he was close to.
Presenter Noel Fielding established to no great surprise that Hirst does not believe in God but holds that “all art is about immortality” and he said “my belief in art is religious”.
He has moved on from dead sharks, sheep and cows and currently favours butterflies which symbolise hope because they look alive even when they’re dead.
