Embracing Readymades and the Notion of Living Forever Essay

It is a shared combination of works that is displayed throughout the museum, setting up conversation between the museum’s collection and Hirst’s contemporary art pieces. The relationship and connection between the works will give visitors a dialogue between the different works, engaging them in a conversation of art and science between the past, present and future. Hirst, one of the most celebrated contemporary artists, whose works propose a personal interpretation of past works, find their insight in science and their basis in art history. Relationships with life and death are being examined, and questions dealth to our cultural, artistic and philosophical ideals. * Works of Damien Hirst mirrored Marcel Duchamp’s idea of the ‘readymade’, that the concept is much more important than the outcome of the work itself, and that ordinary objects/subjects could be taken from everyday use and be used for art. Although Hirst’s works explores the themes of life and death, pathology and science, with the help of ‘readymade’ objects, his works arouse a sense of spiritual enlightenment in the spectator, along with the notion of living forever, which compliments with the centenary of the museum. * With that, I will firstly talk about the idea of the ‘readymades’, and how it is being used in the works that is being exhibited in Cornucopia. Next, I will be analyzing them, discussing the potential meaning behind the ‘readymades’ to my proposed theme of spirituality and the idea of living forever. Koons seduces and persuades the spectators with such works, and desire will ultimately be gone once the spectators looks at themselves and realize that they are desire itself. * * CONCLUSION * The use of ‘readymades’ to promote or provoke an idea, a thought, is what Damien Hirst seeks out to achieve in the exhibition, Cornucopia. As it was held in accordance to the Oceanographic Museum’s 100th anniversary, Hirst’s artworks seek out to question its visitors, what has changed and what remained. Only by constant questioning will we improve and move forward. A sense of spiritual attainment and the idea of living forever can be felt whne looking at Hirst’s works, it evades time and seems to be stuck in limbo, allowing us to reflect on ourselves and our morality. As I have compared, the works of artist Jeff Koons also seeks to enlighten the viewers with his version of the ‘readymades’. ‘Readymades’ is an excellent way to provoke thinking and spreading message as everyday objects are familiar to the general consensus and people could relate better to them, rather then traditional symbols of art.