Marc Quinn
19 Jan - 15 Feb 2007
MARC QUINN
"XXY"
Blown and cast glass silvered on the inside. 230x140 cm. 1997
Multi-part sculpture "XXY" belongs to the Quinn's set of works, made in the second half of the 1990s in blown and cast glass silvered on the inside. Produced in Murano (Italy) with artist controlling the process. The material enables Quinn to give the impression of a liquid and solid shape simultaneously which gives it a universal vitality, existing beyond death.
It is quite evident that in his work the author refers to advanced DNA studies and much promised prospects of marvelous humankind transformation. The way how the work looks is really marvelous, still the audience is free to interpret this idea. Quinn's sculpture looks both beautiful (as a piece of art) and terrifying (when compared to the emerging hints on being related to a human body).
Mercury-flowing and condensing, anthropomorphous and drop-shaped forms embody various possibilities of human uprise from initial chaos of shapelessness, along with disappearance in it.
The title of the work refers us to the phenomenon of disorder in standard karyotype (XY for males and XX for females), causing the so-called Klinefelter Syndrome. Therefore, the work employs concepts within the author’s constant interest area. Such as unstable dualism of our body, ambiguity, which defines all aspects of human life – the spiritual and physical, the intellectual and sexual, the natural and cultural, and at last, the very life and death. As well as attempts to overcome (or even surpass) this dualism of human existence by means of scientific-technical and artistic expression.
Marc Quinn claims that for him creative impulse arises from the very properties of the material, which helps him see things differently from what they appear to be at first sight: in this particular case he was inspired by the idea of creating solid form by means of breathing power. Likewise he admires the mirrors of Versailles, which have witnessed a great number of events of which they have no memory.
* * *
Marc Quinn was born in 1964, London. In 1982-86 he studied the history of art at Cambridge University (Robinson College). In 1983 he learned to cast in bronze while working as an assistant to a famous sculptor Barry Flanagan. His oeuvre is associated with Young British Artists (YBA) – a radical group of conceptual artists, named after a 1992 exhibition, organized by Saatchi Gallery. Yet Quinn didn’t take part in this very project: his works were first shown as part of YBA in 1993 at the Young British Artists II exhibition at the same Saatchi Gallery.
The artist took part in a number of major national and international projects, including: Sydney Biennale (Sydney, Australia, 1992); Sonsbeek’93 (Arnheim, the Netherlands, 1993); Time Machine (British Museum, London, 1994); Thinking Print (Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA, 1996); Sensation (Royal Academy, London, 1997); Give and Take (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2001); Statements 7, 50th Venice Biennale (Venice, Italy, 2003); Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju, South Korea, 2004).
Marc Quinn’s first solo exhibition was organized at Jay Jopling/Otis Gallery (London, 1988). His other solo exhibitions were shown at Tate Gallery (London, 1995); Kunstverein Hannover (Hannover, Germany, 1999); Fondazione Prada (Milan, Italy, 2000); Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, Great Britain, 2002); Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin, 2004); Groninger Museum (Groninger, the Netherlands 2006); MACRO (Rome, 2006).
Marc Quinn as other members of YBAs uses a big variety of materials, for the most part far from being traditional in art. However, his primary form of expression is his own body. According to the artist, “the self is what one knows best and least at the same time... casting the body gives one an opportunity to "see" the self”. Moreover, in his oeuvre Quinn always refers to the works of artists of different epochs and to the eternal art themes.
For his most famous work “Self” (1991) Quinn had 4.5 litres of blood taken from him over the period of 5 months. The blood was then poured into a negative mould of the artist's head and frozen. The work is exhibited in a glass container set on top a refrigeration unit, and it refers us to the tradition of death-masks. In April 2005 it was sold to an American collector at 1.5 million GBP.
Quinn’s another famous work – “Emotional Detox: The Seven Deadly Sins” (1995) – a statuary of seven lead casts of the artist’s body. The series is associated with “character heads” by Austrian sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736-1783).
Since 1999 Marc Quinn has embarked on a series of portraits of people without limbs, carved to his instructions by artisans of emphatically traditional, formally-artistic material – perfect white marble. The most famous one among these portraits is a figure of pregnant Alison Lapper (2005), installed on a plinth in Trafalgar Square (London) in front of the National Gallery.
Another set of his works employs a present-day technology of mummification of living beings. Such is the installation “Garden” (2000): the artist uses living vegetation forms - silicone treated and thus dead they keep their divine beauty forever.
"XXY"
Blown and cast glass silvered on the inside. 230x140 cm. 1997
Multi-part sculpture "XXY" belongs to the Quinn's set of works, made in the second half of the 1990s in blown and cast glass silvered on the inside. Produced in Murano (Italy) with artist controlling the process. The material enables Quinn to give the impression of a liquid and solid shape simultaneously which gives it a universal vitality, existing beyond death.
It is quite evident that in his work the author refers to advanced DNA studies and much promised prospects of marvelous humankind transformation. The way how the work looks is really marvelous, still the audience is free to interpret this idea. Quinn's sculpture looks both beautiful (as a piece of art) and terrifying (when compared to the emerging hints on being related to a human body).
Mercury-flowing and condensing, anthropomorphous and drop-shaped forms embody various possibilities of human uprise from initial chaos of shapelessness, along with disappearance in it.
The title of the work refers us to the phenomenon of disorder in standard karyotype (XY for males and XX for females), causing the so-called Klinefelter Syndrome. Therefore, the work employs concepts within the author’s constant interest area. Such as unstable dualism of our body, ambiguity, which defines all aspects of human life – the spiritual and physical, the intellectual and sexual, the natural and cultural, and at last, the very life and death. As well as attempts to overcome (or even surpass) this dualism of human existence by means of scientific-technical and artistic expression.
Marc Quinn claims that for him creative impulse arises from the very properties of the material, which helps him see things differently from what they appear to be at first sight: in this particular case he was inspired by the idea of creating solid form by means of breathing power. Likewise he admires the mirrors of Versailles, which have witnessed a great number of events of which they have no memory.
* * *
Marc Quinn was born in 1964, London. In 1982-86 he studied the history of art at Cambridge University (Robinson College). In 1983 he learned to cast in bronze while working as an assistant to a famous sculptor Barry Flanagan. His oeuvre is associated with Young British Artists (YBA) – a radical group of conceptual artists, named after a 1992 exhibition, organized by Saatchi Gallery. Yet Quinn didn’t take part in this very project: his works were first shown as part of YBA in 1993 at the Young British Artists II exhibition at the same Saatchi Gallery.
The artist took part in a number of major national and international projects, including: Sydney Biennale (Sydney, Australia, 1992); Sonsbeek’93 (Arnheim, the Netherlands, 1993); Time Machine (British Museum, London, 1994); Thinking Print (Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA, 1996); Sensation (Royal Academy, London, 1997); Give and Take (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2001); Statements 7, 50th Venice Biennale (Venice, Italy, 2003); Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju, South Korea, 2004).
Marc Quinn’s first solo exhibition was organized at Jay Jopling/Otis Gallery (London, 1988). His other solo exhibitions were shown at Tate Gallery (London, 1995); Kunstverein Hannover (Hannover, Germany, 1999); Fondazione Prada (Milan, Italy, 2000); Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, Great Britain, 2002); Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin, 2004); Groninger Museum (Groninger, the Netherlands 2006); MACRO (Rome, 2006).
Marc Quinn as other members of YBAs uses a big variety of materials, for the most part far from being traditional in art. However, his primary form of expression is his own body. According to the artist, “the self is what one knows best and least at the same time... casting the body gives one an opportunity to "see" the self”. Moreover, in his oeuvre Quinn always refers to the works of artists of different epochs and to the eternal art themes.
For his most famous work “Self” (1991) Quinn had 4.5 litres of blood taken from him over the period of 5 months. The blood was then poured into a negative mould of the artist's head and frozen. The work is exhibited in a glass container set on top a refrigeration unit, and it refers us to the tradition of death-masks. In April 2005 it was sold to an American collector at 1.5 million GBP.
Quinn’s another famous work – “Emotional Detox: The Seven Deadly Sins” (1995) – a statuary of seven lead casts of the artist’s body. The series is associated with “character heads” by Austrian sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736-1783).
Since 1999 Marc Quinn has embarked on a series of portraits of people without limbs, carved to his instructions by artisans of emphatically traditional, formally-artistic material – perfect white marble. The most famous one among these portraits is a figure of pregnant Alison Lapper (2005), installed on a plinth in Trafalgar Square (London) in front of the National Gallery.
Another set of his works employs a present-day technology of mummification of living beings. Such is the installation “Garden” (2000): the artist uses living vegetation forms - silicone treated and thus dead they keep their divine beauty forever.