Artist Research: Rauschenberg and Hirst
Last semester I was recommended to look up Rauschenberg's 'Monogram' pictured above and below as a conceptual art piece involving an animal. After this I thought I would research Rauschenberg's use of animals further and got a book out about his combines as many seem to involve parts of taxidermy, another example being 'Canyon' pictured below which includes a bald eagle.
I have chosen 'Monogram' and 'Canyon' as two favourites as I liked the composition of the two pieces with the use of 2D and 3D components. I also like the added painted face of the goat in 'Monogram,' to me it comes across like decorating the goat with tribal or decorative face paints.
The use of the animal for Rauschenberg seems to be more about personal implications and using the found and ready-made which he employs in his collage work. This doesn't really link to what I wanted it to in my work although I like this about Rauschenberg's combines, as in the case of 'Monogram' where he found the taxidermy goat battered up and being sold off as someones accidental office purchase he gives these animals a new lease of life and importance even if the work isn't really anything to do with the animal itself. It's a nice change from animals being used as symbolism for death and morbidity which seems to crop up all the time in my research.
Speaking of death and morbidity, I knew after moving my work in to the realm of sharks it would be unavoidable to research Damien Hirst and his famous Tiger Shark 'The Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.' I decided to read Hirst's book Requiem as it included many a dead thing. As a rule I don't like much at all about Hirst. It often feels a bit exploitative and cruel to me the way he chops up various animals and does what he pleases but yet I still want to see what he's up to even if sometimes it might be to annoy myself.
A good series to sum up my mixed reactions to Hirst is his Kaleidoscope paintings which are made of vast amounts of butterfly wings that create these beautiful stained glass-esque paintings on the surface that I'm so drawn to for their pattern and colour vibrancy. That is until I start thinking about it and the huge amount of pairs of wings needed to create the scale of the pieces starts to make me uncomfortable as it comes across like some grotesque luxury and wasteful. On at least one positive note Hirst says himself the pieces are supposed to be celebratory instead: "I've got an obsession with death, but I think that it's a celebration of life rather than something morbid."
