Cutting Up a Damien Hirst

Holy shitballs. Literally. I’ve been talking to some of you these last couple days about the concept of re-purposing and appropriation in the toy scene, as inspired by Leecifer’s repaints in the recent 5-eyed Dragon Show. Well, with all respect to Michael Lau (and the Tang Dynasty), check this out. In this clip, Thomas Friedman who needs butterflies for his “Up In the Air” installation decides to bypass the sensible plan of getting some from a place like The Bone Room (or even, say, a shower curtain from Bed, Bath and Beyond) because it  seems like a good idea to CUT THEM OUT OF a signed, personalized print of Damien Hirst’s “All You Need is Love, Love Love.” The narrator, on behalf of Phillips de Pury’s Simon de Pury, then states the second best line I’ve read all day: “The [Damien Hirst] insect takes pride of place between old boots and the artist’s underpants.”

It gets better. And by “better,” I mean disgusting. After witnessing Friedman destroy what is alternately described as a multi-thousand and a multi-million dollar work, we then see him, ahem, produce a movement of his own. Of de Pury, the narrator goes on to say: “He recently sold a half millimeter ball of Friedman’s fecal matter for $42,000, but that was before the bottom fell out of the market.”

Ain’t the art world crazy? That’s part of why I love this stuff. And also why I ask all of you (my artist friends) so many questions. I suppose you could counter with, “So it’s like your job and stuff to write about this guy who rolls shit balls?” Why yes, I guess it is. Crazy indeed. Oh, and by the way, I would like to meet Simon de Pury someday, but he just wrote himself out of a handshake for eternity. He’s getting the Howie Mandell treatment from me for sure. Thanks to Steve Agin for flagging this video (part of The Man With the Golden Gavel) to my attention!