Damien Hirst: Burning Art?
Photo by Max Kukurudziak on Unsplash
Damien Hirst was never one to shy away from publicity and controversy. At his first solo exhibition in 1991, viewers contemplated large canvases with dead butterflies seemingly trapped in brightly coloured household paint. One year later, dead animals suspended in formaldehyde made him famous: in 1992, viewers stood in front of a dead tiger shark suspended in formaldehyde, not sure what to think or feel. Today, Hirst is reportedly the United Kingdom’s richest living artist. Other controversial works have included a platinum replica of a human skull encrusted with diamonds. Opinion on the celebrity artist remains strongly divided: some admire his ability to spark interest in art and debates about art and the art market. Others vehemently condemn his work as tasteless commercial productions that have nothing to do with art.
In July 2021, Hirst announced his first NFT (non-fungible tokens) project, “The Currency.” NFTs are digital artworks, and they are almost as controversial in the art world as Damien Hirst: traditionally, works of art are valuable because they are completely unique and exist only once in the world. NFT art aims to make digital art collectible: usually, digital files can easily be copied and replicated, but NFT art comes with a certificate and can only have one official owner at a time. Hirst announced that he would put on sale 10,000 NFTs that corresponded to 10,000 original artworks. The artworks were all created in 2016 by hand, and all look pretty much the same: colourful dots on white paper. The potential collectors were now given a choice: they could either keep the NFT or exchange it for the original spot painting on paper. The exchange finished on 27 July 2022: 5,149 collectors opted for the physical work, 4,851 for the NFT. If they chose the physical work, the NFT of the work will be destroyed – and if they chose the NFT, the physical work will be destroyed.
Which brings us to “The Burn:” from 23 September until 30 October 2022, Damien Hirst is exhibiting all the physical spot paintings whose owners opted for the NFT at his London gallery, Newport Street Gallery. And on 11 October, dressed in silver protective trousers and gloves, Hirst started burning them in six wood-burning fireplaces. The public burnings at the gallery will continue until the exhibition closes. Hirst is excited about his project: he sees the whole process of people buying and exchanging the artworks as a great communal experience. He hopes that “The Currency” will make people think about the meaning of art as a currency and about making money with art – it is no coincidence that the first burn took place during Frieze week, one of the world’s most influential contemporary art fairs. But his critics are throwing up their hands in despair, worrying that his stunt is exactly the type of act that gives contemporary art a bad name. Others are shaking their head at Hirst’s decision to burn art worth £10 million, worrying about the unnecessary negative environmental impact of the ongoing fires and about the message his act is sending in the face of soaring living costs.