Here’s another bizarre example of what passes for art these days. “Artist” Damien Hirst was at the center of a controversy this summer over his latest piece, Amazing Revelations, which was displayed at the White Cube gallery in Hoxton, East London.
According to a Daily Telegraph story on the piece,
Amazing Revelations consists of hundreds of wings plucked from tropical butterflies and placed on a triangular canvas, prompting protests from animal rights groups.
. . .
A spokesman for Hirst, who is out of the country, refused to discuss where the butterflies came from or how they met their fate. Asked where he was, she said: “He’s not out there slaughtering butterflies.”
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ Dawn Carr told the media that Hirst was a sadist. She told The Guardian,
One has to wonder if Hirst was the sort of demented child who would pull the wings off flies for fun. He certainly has become that sort of an adult. Butterfly wings are beautiful on a butterfly but tearing small creatures to bits is not art, it’s sadism.
According to The Guardian, Hirst made his name with “art” including “sawing up cows, pickling sheep and suspending sharks in tanks of formaldehyde . . .”
Sources:
Hirst accused of sadism over butterfly collage. The Guardian, August 15, 2003.
Hirst breaks a butterfly’s wing to bring us art. Sally Pook, Daily Telegraph, August 15, 2003.