Damien Hirst, has Inspired Living Coasts Aquarium to Get Creative With Penguins
By Philip KnowlingTorquay, UK - Living Coasts Aquarium is paying tribute to artist Damien Hirst with a wildlife response to his work.
Last year, Torquay’s coastal zoo produced a successful penguin homage to Field for the British Isles by Antony Gormley. This year’s TAMED exhibition at Torre Abbey, featuring the work of Damien Hirst, has inspired the conservation charity to get creative with penguins, jelly and chocolate cows.
Living Coasts Aquarium Director Elaine Hayes said: “A central theme of Hirst's work is mortality. He’s known for his Natural History series, in which dead animals are presented as memento mori. His art mirrors the death of nature, so it is fitting for us as a conservation charity to produce pieces inspired by his work that highlight conservation issues.
“Penguin and Food Divided is a sculptural piece inspired by Damien Hirst’s Turner Prize winning installation, Mother and Child Divided, currently on show in the Spanish Barn at Torre Abbey. Instead of re-inventing religious iconography Penguin and Food Divided acknowledges one of Living Coasts’ central themes - conservation.
“This piece is a commentary on the circumstances that have led to the decline of African penguin populations in the wild. These magnificent creatures, recently identified as endangered, are being threatened by a severe lack of food sources, because of competition from commercial fishing and an inability to follow migrating shoals because of human development.”
Living Coasts Marketing Manager Stuart Wright, who made the pieces, said: “This sculpture presents two industrial, man-made boxes, one containing an African penguin with a chick and the other their typical food source. Isolated and separated by these angular containers, the characters depict the struggle that these animals face every day.”
No penguins were harmed during the making of this artwork.
The Café at Living Coasts has also been inspired. Chef Tony Perkins has created a special Hirst dessert using chocolate cows in green jelly. Tony: “Is it art? It’s dessert!” For the Love of Pudding is named after Hirst’s For the Love of God, a human skull made of platinum and studded with over 8,000 diamonds.
The TAMED exhibition features Damien Hirst’s Mother and Child Divided plus work by Heather Jansch and Mariele Neudecker. The exhibition runs from 6 July to 30 August. For more information go to www.livingcoasts.org.uk or ring (01803) 202470.
To view Living Coasts Aquarium's web page on Zoo and Aquarium Visitor, go to: http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-786-Living_Coasts
Source
No comments:
Post a Comment