Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Conceptual artist known for iconic works using preserved animals and themes of life, death, beauty, and horror.
On the island
Eight records
It's the Magnificent Seven by The Clash and in '7 I was twelve, so I was a bit too young to be a punk, but I really wanted to be a punk and I used to have like a bin bag at the bottom of the garden that I'd put my clothes in that I wanted to wear to go out in so I could change without my mum seeing.
this is the Trash Men Surfing Bird, which is the first song that my son, who is seventeen years old now, Connor, that he kinda got into.
the third one is my second son who's twelve years old, Cassius' favourite tune when he was young, Big Yellow Taxi by Johnny Mitchell.
Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey
the fourth tune I'd choose is Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey by The Beatles, which was my seven-year-old son Cyrus's favourite tune.
This is a track called You Don't Know by Bob Andy. Um it was when I was sort of realizing that um drinking cocaine were becoming a bit of a problem.
the song Ian Brown, Fear, is one of those songs... I made two paintings called Fantastic Expectations and Amazing Revelations which is F E A R.
X-Ray StyleFavourite
Joe Strummer, who I said before was a mate of mine. He asked me to do his album cover for this album that he did with his band The Mescaleros. And uh the album's called Rock Art and the X-Ray Style.
It's The Stone Roses I Am the Resurrection. And uh I always wanted to meet the Beatles and I think the Stone Roses are like the Beatles and the the greatest track of theirs is I Am the Resurrection.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:24How do you want somebody to feel once they've looked at [Mother and Child Divided]?
I remember uh seeing a Richard Serra sculpture. It was like two pieces stood side by side. I remember walking through the centre of it and thinking, Oh my god, this thing could fall on me and kill me, thinking that's a great response and a great reaction to a you know, physical reaction to a piece of art and then I remember thinking that if you could take a walk through a cow, you could get that same sort of shock. You can't help but walk in and then once you get in you kind of want to get out. I think you can explain it, but I think it should definitely work primarily without explanation.
Presenter asks
3:00Did it matter to you that the critics hated your No Love Lost paintings?
No, not at all. I mean, you know, it's like I mean I I mean, you know, I mean, I think they were just waiting to have a dig really, you know. I mean, I've always tried to not take the praise seriously so that then when it gets slagged off, I don't have to take that seriously as well.
Presenter asks
4:50You once said museums are for dead artists. What changed your mind about having a retrospective at Tate Modern?
Yeah, I mean I found a bit of footage of me actually with David Bowery sat on the edge of one of my sculptures, um and where he's asking me what I think of um museums and I'd definitely say they're for dead artists. And then he says to me, Would you ever show at the Tite? And I was like, Not in a million years, I'd never show there. ... I suppose you get to a point where you've suddenly got less time in front of you than you have behind you. I think, you know, when you get to that point, that's when you can start to look back comfortably.
The keepsakes
The book
a transcript of the Large Glass by Marcel Duchamp
Richard Hamilton
It's a transcript of the Large Glass by Marcel Duchamp, but it's something that he made. So it's his analysis of what Duchamp was thinking and about when he made The Large Glass.
The luxury
Untitled 2009 by Roger Hiorns (two car engines soaked in copper sulphate crystals)
it's of two car engines hung on a metal frame and they're dipped and soaked in copper sulphate crystals.
Presenter asks
6:07Do you ever worry that commodifying your art – putting dots on pedal bins and Brit statuettes – diminishes people's perception of your art?
No, I mean I think there's a I think there's you know, I mean I have arguments about it'cause as you get older and as I get older it bec you know, I know as I'm doing it for longer, it does become like that, you know, and it's like every time I make somebody a surfboard it's like it goes on the wall and you kind of want them to surf it and you know and it as things become more valuable and you can't expect people to s sort of treat them as throwaways. I've always wanted to make art that you can't avoid, you know, not art that you can ignore in any way.
Presenter asks
23:43You used the phrase 'being Damien Hurst' as though it's something you choose to engage with. Can you unpack that?
It's not who you are, it's what you represent to people. And it's important what you represent to people.
Presenter asks
31:02What do you hope people will say about Damien Hurst the Artist when you're gone?
Um, you kinda make art, I've always thought, for people who haven't been born yet. So you just hope that it makes sense and it hope that it gives a glimpse into the world that we lived in, that I've lived in, that you wouldn't see in any other way. I mean, the hope is that it's relevant, because a lot of art doesn't end up in the museum, it ends up in the museum storage covered in cobwebs, you know.
“I remember thinking, Oh my god, this thing could fall on me and kill me, thinking that's a great response and a great reaction to a you know, physical reaction to a piece of art”
“I've always tried to not take the praise seriously so that then when it gets slagged off, I don't have to take that seriously as well.”
“I think getting an E is quite difficult. It's not an F, which is a fail.”
“I've always thought that, you know, it's much more important to have dad written on your gravestone than artist.”
“You just want to end up making sure that you still communicate and have a good relationship with your kids and they're first and foremost.”