Vegifauna
80 x 120 cm
1993
“Well, that’s what you get if you do so little to make your intentions known, like Meta-art does. It easily makes people think you have no intentions at all.
In 1993 it is 2 years ago that Damien Hirst sent his shark on formaldehyde into the world under a title that was supposed to leave no doubt that Damien knew his way around in philosophy.
That arrived.
Big , threatening – despite the helplessness of death -, groundbreaking, troublemaking. No one came around it. A bit like Les demoiselles d’Avignon, but entirely different. Damien’s shark was reality taken into a gallery and, thanks to a clever title, uplifted to serious art.
Duchamp for a world that had already seen everything and had already experienced everything. A readymade with properties that could do nothing but impress. Concerning a theme, death, that never does anything but impress.
There has been a lot of impressing going on in the arts ever since.”
From the chapter 1993: wonder year 2,
from the book Meta-art
by Mick van Schooneveld
