That Damien Hirst is following me into my own house.
I decided to follow him a little and cook up something for Halloween, based on his diamond skull. The party store didn’t have anything in hard plastic, so I settled for a hockey mask, derived from some scary movie. I then spent too much on plastic rhinestones which I glued onto the mask during hours of granddad babysitting. It ended up like this:
Then I made a poster to hand out to treat or tricksters.
So, what are you doing for Halloween?
Jay,
It is indeed funny that you ask this – just yesterday, I crafted a mask out of flexible cardboard, painted a nose and an evil looking mouth, cutouts for eyes and attached it to my face very clumsily with twine that was tied tightly at the back of my head. This was to serve as a foil for a spanking new batman mask that we bought for our three year old son in a preparation that culminates on All Hallows Eve. Now my son insists on talking to me only after we don our respective masks.
The skull thing runs amok… I have been seeing skull based references everywhere (even last Friday’s NYT arts section had some reference). Prompted me to write some lines…
Artists don’t have time to mull –
o’er anything other than human skull.
The fad started when a demon first
possessed the mind of one Damien Hirst.
If anyone wants to carry on with the lines – please do so…. Lets see how far we go…
Sunil:
Sorry, I can’t respond to your comment: you’re not wearing your mask.
E-mail me a picture of you in yours along with those shots of your show installation.
Your thought reminds me of a family friend who taught English in a Chinese village. He explained Halloween to the students and they responded enthusiastically with the most beautiful and inventive masks and costumes.
Sunil:
O.K. I’ll bite.
Such a lucky demon
That he should find
That Damien’s cranium
Holds a diamond mind.
Over to you.
Sharks and cows
that have been sliced
serve the purpose only to entice
hungry young artists to incite
their own diamond demons
with all their might.
Love the mask, Jay.
Enough already with decaying critters
You can make more gold with all that glitters
But nothing gold, we’re told, can stay,
So diamonds might be brought into play.
Give me a few or give me more
Give me the glitter and hear me roar.
Pshaw with the rhinestones —
a devil’s delight.
A diamond’s forever,
a girl’s proper right.
But rhinestones are all
One can properly ask
When a girl’s proper right
Is a Halloween mask.
June:
Do you actually roar? But then I can imagine you bellowing your lungs out at the fossil beds.
I’m better at roaring than wearing diamonds, truth be told. But in the spirit of Damien and all hallow’s eve, I thought I should verify old stereotypes.
Well, it looks like the ‘group rhyme thing’ has gone off as nuttily as I expected. Proves that it is just not me who is quirky here…
The complete nutty rhyme is compiled here with 8 more lines I added for some good measure…
Artists don’t have time to mull –
o’er anything other than human skull.
The fad started when a demon first
possessed the mind of one Damien Hirst.
Such a lucky demon
That he should find
That Damien’s cranium
Holds a diamond mind.
Sharks and cows
that have been sliced
serve the purpose only to entice
hungry young artists to incite
their own diamond demons
with all their might.
But nothing gold, we’re told, can stay,
So diamonds might be brought into play.
Give me a few or give me more
Give me the glitter and hear me roar.
Pshaw with the rhinestones –
a devil’s delight.
A diamond’s forever,
a girl’s proper right.
But rhinestones are all
One can properly ask
When a girl’s proper right
Is a Halloween mask.
Diamonds, rhinestones and sparkly lights,
are but fleeting and ephemeral delights.
Of no use other than to justify,
a life lived hollow – to clarify.
Nevertheless, it looks like the real deal
collected with ever ginormous zeal,
lies glittering inside Damien’s (bank) vaults
the results of these tasteless assaults.
Sunil:
I, for one, appreciate that compilation.
Speaking of skullpture, it dawned on me that I had seen another skull at the Philly Museum within the last few years. Perhaps you folks can help me remember: it is a regular human skull that an artist from South America has emblazoned with a pencil drawing. I believe that he may have been making reference to practices in his country. Its interesting to note that both his and Hirst’s are embellished with carbon. Two very different takes on the ashes-to-ashes theme. Between the two, I much prefer the pencil rendition as I can get my jollies at the Swarovsky emporium.
Fun!