15.8.12

Butterflies and Hirst

It seems like it was ages ago since I visited the Hirst exhibit at the Tate Modern. Stll, I thought I should post something about it.

Although Hirst's work didn't quite affect me as much as it did the first time I saw it, nearly a decade ago, I enjoyed the butterfly room entitled "In and Out of Love", which was something I hadn't seen before.

In and Out of Love
Damien Hirst

Here's what you can expect to see if you go into "In and Out of Love".
Originally created in 1991, this installation presents white canvases in a humid room embedded with pupae. The butterflies hatch from the paintings and are allowed to fly freely around the room and to live out their natural life cycle. 
Although, I later found out that dead butterflies were replaced my someone and the actual piece pretty much stayed the same. Bit of a shame.

The most impressive were the pieces below. 


Kaleidoscope VII, 2004, Damien Hirst
Butterfly-wings and household gloss on canvas
Photo: Dave Morgan, via White Cube Gallery.
'Kaleidoscope' used one of my favourite butterflies - the Morpho Butterfly...


                                           
Morpho Butterfly photographed at Tring Natural History Museum











...which flashed under the lighting. The wings came together to form an amazing vivid statement in the room and the size and combination of colours were bold and unique. 
Bringing Forth the Fruits of Righteousness, 2008, Damien Hirst
Unfortunately, the piece above wasn't on show but another colour way was and was equally stunning.

'Sympathy in White Major' has to be my most favourite. 



As well as being on show it was also used for a wallpaper motif, which covered a wall in the exhibtion. For £250 per roll I wasn't about to buy it but I almost wish I could have.

The exhibit reminded me how much butterflies are great subjects and of a past collection of mixed media pieces I did a couple of years ago called Insectia.

Here's my favourite piece from the collection, which I sold. Unfortunately I never got to meet the buyer :( I hope I do one day.
                                      
Crawl
Laser cut paper
2011
Sabrina Samsoodin
For links to Insectia click on my website or blog
You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter to find out about my current study of British Birds and frogs for a project - JUMP + FLY.  

More to come on this project soon ...


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