I picked up a Smithsonian Young Scientist Anatomy set at the TJ Maxx bargain toy bin a couple of weeks ago. I showed it to the intellectual and art savvy Mrs. Breen, who confirmed it looked like 'Hymn', a 20 or 30 foot tall piece by Damien Hirst. Charles Saatchi is reported to have bought the piece for about $1.5 million, and there was a controversy that it was simply a copy of this toy made large. Warhol did similar things with a soup can and got away with it so I'm not sure what the brouhaha was about. However, I read that Hirst made a "good-will" payment to the commercial sculptor who actually designed the piece for the toy company to settle matters.
My take on the subject is a little different, and quite a bit smaller - I'm using the actual toy! The text around the base says,'Major surgery on Jesus proved evolution when lungfish and a homo habilis homonucleus were found in his chest cavity!' I used my own head hair saved from my last haircut for Jesus' hair, beard and underarm hair. The toy stands about 10.5 inches high and is painted with acrylics. The organs are removable. I've made the lungs into fish, turned the heart into a flaming heart with an eye, and turned the intestines and liver? into a homonucleus which is eating his stomach. His brain is thinking about running away from the crucifiction, but envisions Jesus being struck by lightning if he were to be so disobedient. After handling the doll for awhile I noticed I was getting fingerprints on it, so I dipped my fingers in the paint and put a lot more on. I've provided Jesus with armpit hair and a penis(blue) which the anatomy designers apparently forgot about.
Bid on the new
breen
posted by Eddie 7/02/2001 11:40:00 AM