Image:Damien Hirst’s Legend at Chatsworth House.
After sharks, sheep and cows in formaldehyde, Damien Hirst is moving on to mythical creatures, and while they may be unpickled, they are still not quite in pristine shape.
Two new Hirst works will go on public display at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire next week.
The newest, Legend, is a winged horse that has been partly surgically flayed, exposing muscle and bone. The other is a unicorn called Myth, with skin removed from its legs.
Hirst said the pieces were a continuation of his interest in the relationship between science and religion. “In a way science brings religion down to earth and to cut open mythical creatures and expose them as no different to mortal horses is somehow still magical. It’s kind of like exploding a myth to make it real.”
They follow Hirst works such as Hymn, the large anatomical toy and the Virgin Mother, a dissected pregnant woman.
“I like the way that even by showing these creatures’ insides they still feel majestic and hopeful, so they seem more real and not just creatures from fantasy. Maybe they can even help us in the real world.”
The works will be part of a Sotheby’s selling exhibition of monumental sculpture at Chatsworth, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Devonshire. Hirst said: “I’m making a head of medusa, too, and I’d say there are more mythical creatures to come, after all the formaldehyde animals, I think mythical creatures are the way I’m going.”
The sculptures up for sale range from the 1930s to the present day and include work by artists including Marc Quinn, Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama, Barry Flanagan and Lynn Chadwick. They are on public display from 16 September to 30 October.
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