THE ART OF SHOCK IN
LONDON
Art has always been present in our lives and cultures, it is used a vessel to capture our thoughts and experiences, and is intended to be appreciated for its emotional power/and or beauty. Elements such as locations the art was created in can be so important to our understanding of our world; the same still life could be captured by artists all over the globe yet each piece would express different attitudes and perspectives to the objects.
Recently, for the first time in history art is broadcasted all round the world. It has become a symbol of status and a product of money, this could be a factor of the growth of technology and our development in communication abilities, such as the internet. The internet creates a bridge of communication between artists and allows us to learn about the problems of our world we would otherwise be ignorant to. Collective goals such as climate change, the refugee crisis and various epidemics emphasises the need for a movement in art to protest the elements in our lives we have been denied to freedom to change.
Art protest often emerges in big cities as they can be an incubator for, fresh ideas and political movements. Collections of people in from those fleeing persecution and poverty to strong artistic communities are all drawn to the center in hope of change. London currently speaks over 300 languages and and houses 3 of the 10 top museums and galleries in the world. The cities vibrancy echoes from it’s revolutionary past; bouncing back from the damages left after WW2 introduced the freedom of the swinging sixties, later rebelling into the punk era of the 70s. The community was ready to embrace changes and breakdown the problems of our society, everything was thriving off the shock factor. This leads into the 80’s containing outlandish fashion, Margaret Thatcher as prime minister and John Lennon now dead, there was unrest and something needed to change. In 1998 Damien Hirst was attending Goldsmiths College of art, himself and a collection of artists got together and created the exhibition “Freeze”. This involved a piece ‘boxes’ which was simply a collection of glossed cardboard boxes, another was paintings: “Row” and “Edge” both organised coloured dots painted straight onto the gallery walls, creating an illusive and hypnotic effect. This was unprecedented at the time, the group were exploring using familiar objects and giving them a new concept and meaning. This exhibition is now classified as the nucleus of the Brit Pop art movement and the foundation of the YBA (young british artists) as it changed many artist’s visions, attitudes and ambitions. They began thinking on a larger scale and approval no longer felt necessary. Damien Hirst is now regarded as a great, contemporary artist, exploring the fragile relationship between art, religion, science, life and death and controversially exploring different takes on beauty . Himself amongst fellow artists from the “Freeze” project dominated the 90’s art world, most notably his groundbreaking piece in 1991, “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living” this a artwork of a tiger shark preserved in blue liquid in the large glass and steel box. The title suggests Hirst was experimenting with the idea of mortality whilst juxtaposing it with a symbol of pain and power, he toys with conceptions of status using a universal trigger for fear. This fear factor was working, and yet again people were thriving off the shock factor. Hirst began exploring this primal love/hate relationship to facing your fears, whether this be death, gore, or simply sharks. He has expanded this ideas adding dark humour and sense of reality into his pieces. He places agricultural and household animals in a new context, he shows us a pig divided horizontally into two, names “this little piggy went to market” we also see caucuses hung in a sentient like way with the caption “only god knows why” I think he is playing with our boundaries and what makes us shocked however mainly exposing why we become intimidated by these sights, the fear of sharks and gore for example are modern inventions many things we are scared off now as a society are often created and capitalised. I think he is trying to show that whilst we are viewing his work, we are experiencing a complex web of created associations. Incurring this, what feeling or needs in our lives are our genuine feeling and what emotions are learnt through association and propaganda.