Damien Hirst in Mexico
Contemporary British artist
Damien Hirst is building a studio in Mexico, so he can escape the British winter 3 months of the year and to get closer to a culture he feels an affinity with. The part that particularly interests him is the Mexican relationship with death and how it is celebrated there. The "Young British Artist" (that is now 40+) has used death quite a lot in his work, with real sharks and sheep in glass. The Day of the Dead must really appeal to the morbid streak in Hirst.
The bell tolls for Hirst's tried and tested work
"I think that the way that I deal with death is a bit Mexican. In England people hide or shy away from death and ideas about it, whereas Mexicans seem to walk hand in hand with it," he said, a week before the country celebrates the departed on the Day of the Dead. "In that way I feel a bit liberated here." Guardian
>>
Damien Hirst News
