Hirst the Worst or Damien is Best?

This week saw the opening of a Damien Hirst Retrospective nicely timed for The Olympics.

A melee of Collectors, facelifts, Italian Suits, minor celebrities, Art Glitterati & London Gutter-ati {which is most relevant to me!} descended into the Tate Modern.

I had exceedingly low expectations, having been to a few Hirst Openings in the past.
To be honest, most of the work looked like Dubai restaurant chic, or something in a nice wallpaper magazine spread. {Ironically, it's worked well on both platforms.}

However, the brilliance of Damien Hirst's early work soon got my juices going. There was a butterfly room, specially commissioned for the exhibiton, where butterflies fly freely in amongst flowers & rotting fruit. It was the best thing about the show. A violet butterfly even sat on my quiff. It got more snapped than Ronnie Wood, who was also posing with a brown butterfly at the same time!

I witnessed negative mutterings & sighs of disdain from various artworks giants   {Mind you, they tend to do this very well! } However the general feelings of rage stemmed from how one dimensional & shallow most of it felt. A bit like drinking too much champagne - but I can't see what's wrong with that in the long run. We all love bit of champers innit!

Due to my recent conversion to Instagram, I snapped away unaided & unstopped by any ushers. It occurred to me that Hirst's real talent was in making iconic statements, which magnified beautifully through a smart phone reality. God Bless Social Networking!

My favourite work is Hirst's 'A Thousand Years.' It's been described: 'A very provocative work that actually contains an entire lifecycle of several maggots. The maggots hatch out of a minimal white box and then feed on a cow's head conveniently placed in the larger glass case. Some of the flies then die in the "insect-o-cuter" while other survive to continue their rather revolting cycle.'

For all of the Hirst haters, this is the one piece that is evocative of a thousand metaphors for the cycle of life & death.

Girl About Town- A week of openings!

The unveiling of the Tacita Dean's new work for the Tate Modern felt more like a psychedelic love in rather than a conventional Art Opening. It certainly was an iconic piece of work.

It's a vertical film collage of simulating abstract images. The film is driven by mutating images that invoke feelings in flight rather than a conventional narrative.

 It coincides a campaign by Dean to recognise & save Analogue Film. Screw the guy on the BBC news who said there was no difference between analogue & digital. He clearly needs his eyes checked out!

I loved the work both as a piece of art & a  fellow analogue enthusiast. Off course there IS a massive difference between Analogue & Digital. Analogue gives you an entire spectrum of emotions that Digital is not capable of & this was so evident in Dean's inspiring piece of work.

 

The Opening of the Frieze Art Fair is one hot ticket & coincides with a brilliantly curated programme of events, by Sarah McCrory of Frieze Projects.

This year Frieze Projects has invited Lucky PDF to run a TV channel, especially for Frieze. The public are invited to engage with the channel at the fair or to watch remotely via the internet.

I was lucky enough to catch their 1st performance of the fair. Love the references to Tony Wilson's, 'So it Goes.'

 

I then swanned off to Lancaster House on my 1st outing as An Official Ambassador for 'The Diana Award.' The event was so inspiring. It was wonderful to meet many amazing young award holders & hear their tales of courage & bravery.

I was also over the moon that my shoulder piece by Ada Zanditon fit in so well with the Lancaster House furnishings. Yay! Check out me & Fashion legend, Zandra Rhodes.

Please go to www.diana-award.org.uk for more info about the charity & all their wonderful work. I look forward to working closely with The Diana Award to spread their message.

And finally Here is Pierre Huyghe's remake of Brancusi's 'Sleeping Muse.'
in the secret back room at The Frieze Art Fair. I loved the crab hiding inside the Brancusi head.I think it was my favourite piece of the entire fair.