Much has been written about Tate Modern’s new retrospective of the work of British artist Damien Hirst. British art seems immune to valid criticism, much like Coca Cola. Some theatrical ‘critics’ have savaged his work, Brian Sewell wrote ‘’ put bluntly, this man’s imagination is quite as dead as all the dead creatures here suspended in formaldehyde’’. This exhibition is the first opportunity to trace the trajectory of his glittering career, and to make your own mind up about his brand/work.

Art has always provoked, and hopefully it encourages the viewer to contemplate. Picasso’s Guernica (1937) depicted the harrowing consequences of a contemporary bombing of a small, Basque town. Andreas Serrano’s Piss Christ (1989) is a photograph of a crucifix, submerged in a glass of the artist’s own urine. Leon Golub’s Interrogation III (1981) depicts a female nude, a hooded detainee strapped to a chair, her legs open to reveal her sexual organs, surrounded by two tormentors dressed in everyday clothing. Tracey Emin’s ‘Bed’ is another example of a work that has divided critics, as did some of Robert Mapplethorpe’s sexually explicit photography.

I went to view the retrospective with an open mind. I didn’t want my reaction to be colored by the negative press. It was good to see the bigger works again. Judging peoples reaction, the masses are still not sure what perspective they are supposed to take in judging this work.

Firstly, the amount of work struck me. We advance through over ten rooms of work, we see the themes repeated and the work grow more glossy and slick. The rise of the machines.

Lets remember, Hirst is a product of our contemporary art school system. Four years of self directed conceptual programming that teaches us, the idea is king. He is the kid who tears the wings from a butterfly (See room 4). The larger works, especially the barbarous ‘A Thousand Years’ is a Bacon painting re-imagined. In between homage, glamour, death and repetition, I see a robotic coldness, and a dissection of love, until its guts are revealed. I thought of Alexander McQueen and his similar aesthetic. They were the same generation and both fascinated by the skull motif. McQueen had Isabella Blow as a mentor, Hirst had Saatchi, an advert man by trade. ‘I think suicide is the most perfect thing you can do in life’ comments Hirst.
Hirst’s early work, shown in the first room, is his weakest. The first spot painting from 1986 is present, as are many of the motifs and themes that he has returned to repeatedly in his career. ‘For the love of God 2007’ is the campest piece of the whole show. It is as cold as the diamonds that embellish it. Although a sense of Disney adventure infuses it, the skull is like a film prop relic, raised up to mythic proportions on a studio tour. It reveals nothing. I stared at my own reflection, skull to skull, in the hope of finding some revelation. My hope was in vain.

An eerie cruelness infuses the whole exhibition. It is like a laboratory of loss. I was almost expecting to see Gunther von Hagens on the ticket desk. The butterfly room is sad. The artists ambition and drive paid off. No one can stop you if you believe. With the help of the Di Medici like Saatchi as a benefactor, he could realize works like ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in The Mind of Someone Living”. It is his biggest hit but the rest of the show is full of b-sides. It may sound reductive but I can’t stop thinking of a provincial final year degree show. There is a blatant lack of depth on mammoth subjects like death. On close inspection the butterfly mandalas are shoddily constructed. Truthfully,I found the show cold and depressing. This art is successful because art galleries are run like big businesses, meeting targets and wining and dining patrons. The art is as corporate and cold as its patrons. Of course you can argue that art has always been a business.

They say every generation gets the art they deserve, and here it is, a cold brutal gloss, bathed in acid.
We have Emin’s never ending adolescent angst and Hirst’s one line works ala advertising taglines. A greatest hit’s stuck on repeat. In our celebrity obsessed, war weary, big pharma driven reality, Hirst is more like an American artist than a British one.

The audience are as divided as his cow in formaldehyde. Hirst is an artist of opposites, he comments ‘In an artwork I alway try to say something and deny it at the same time’. What if Damien Hirst truly is a genius?, holding up a mirror to a sick society. If we could believe in art like we believe in pharmaceuticals, would we be more evolved? Are we rotten to the core, consumerist, flesh eating monsters who enjoy cruelty, and repeat our mistakes again and again?

The final room is the shop, housing all the spin off’s of the brand that is the artist. Deck chairs, notepads, postcards, and skull t-shirts. A hollow and commercial full stop.

It is interesting to look back at the work of Edward Bernays (November 22, 1891 – March 9, 1995). He was the nephew of Sigmund Freud and was dubbed ‘father of Public Relations.’ He was someone who has played a key role in defining the industry’s philosophy and methods. Bernays convinced industries that it was the news, and not advertising, that would carry their message to the naïve public. He used his uncle’s psychoanalytic research and theories for commerce. He promoted everything from books to smoking. He had a large client list, including President’s, Procter & Gamble, CBS, the American Tobacco Company, General Electric, & Dodge Motors. He worked on a highly profitable media campaign to convince the public that fluoride was safe, along with the American Dental Association.

In order to grasp the social, political, cultural and economic developments of the past century it is important to have an understanding of Bernays and his influence in the 20th century born public relations industry.

t frightens me when I begin to see how we are manipulated. We grow up with images of products on television and in magazines. We are taught to aspire to certain ideals in school. Everything is geared towards consumption. Buy a mortgage, buy a car, get a loan, get a credit card, get married, new clothes every season. Buy fast food, buy insurance, buy cigarettes, everything is geared around money and consumption. There never seems to be a thought in society for the long- term effects.

When you start to reflect on the story behind the story, it is liberating to know you can make choices that have nothing to do with the consumer world. People are waking up to the fact they can live sustainable lives without the need to be part of a programmed reality. We need a shift in consciousness away from the desire to be a mouse on the treadmill of so-called material success.

I find it sad that one individual, such as Bernays, can have such negative accomplishments through the manipulation of people’s subconscious desires, yet he is celebrated as an influential American. I wonder if he was aware of the long – term effects. We have manipulation of people through campaigns citing ‘experts’ who have nothing at their core but a desire for capital. It is profit over people. Take a moment to investigate certain vaccines, or read the label on your high street supermarket food. We have to be diligent considering fifty years a go smoking was considered good for you by ‘experts’. The masses are not always are in the present moment as they are bombarded by propaganda and subliminal sales tactics.

Clearly this manipulation is still happening today, and now we have even more sophisticated means of influencing peoples choices and emotions. Don’t forget the myriad of lobbying groups that exist. Several historians also believe that Hitler used herd behavior and crowd psychology to his advantage, and we know that he was aware of the work of Bernays.

In Propaganda from 1928, Bernays wrote,

‘’The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government, which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.’

Open your eyes. Just remember PR used to be called propaganda, but that term was not so popular with the masses.

Ella Fitzgerald on Marilyn Monroe

“I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt. It was because of her that I played the Mocambo, a very popular nightclub in the ’50s. She personally called the owner of the Mocambo (who had refused to book Fitzgerald because she was black), and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him – and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status – that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard… After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman – a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.”

When you walk down the high street and browse in certain stores, you realise that in order to sell these clothes at these cheap prices, a worker will have been paid next to nothing. We accept what we are fed, in politics, fashion, medicine and in food. We ignore the reasoning behind things. Media and politics use language to keep our thoughts at bay. Everything can be justified with a tag line.

Don’t get me wrong, it is often hard to be ethical.  Boring to make a stand when you just want to buy something new to wear, or grab a quick lunch. You want to avoid the political guilt and the grim reality of what your purchase really stands for. The supermarket is the biggest minefield we have in life. It is all mostly poison. People wonder why they are obese? Food products contain many hidden sugars and oils. The masses are oblivious. And that’s just the ‘Diet’ products! Don’t even get me started on the local pharmacy, drugs prescribed for illnesses that end up exacerbating the problem.

Organic food is great but it is very expensive for the average person. I see young and old eating fast food and I understand why, but people can no longer justify putting this poison into their bodies. I am nostalgic for a time when I didn’t know the truth about mechanically separated chicken. It is really sad because many people just do not realize what is in certain food. They never read the label. I have noticed that food is a very touchy area, people get very indignant when quizzed on their choices.

Look at the truth about this fast ‘food’ and some thought provoking articles on http://www.naturalnews.com/

The image of an innocent and radiant Whitney Houston is long gone, but it makes me wistful. Nostalgic for that time when I believed the illusion. Our stars have feet of clay. They are mortal, after all. When one ponders the sanity of the world, it is called into question when one reads the endless reams of pulp devoted to celebrity lives. We pay less attention to real events. Colosseum’s of social networking and media are all awash with pre-prepared copy of Whitney’s demise. A coldly calculated and neatly quoted package to be sold to the eager masses. A few hours later, the jokes and song puns will start rolling in the deep recesses of facebook, to be reposted again and again.

We continue to raise celebrities up on pedestals. What are they really achieving? Sales? When an individual becomes a commodity, it is very hard for the individual to separate self and image. We forget that there is a real person behind the entertainer. The entertainer often falling into the trap of addiction in order to function on a high octane schedule.
Looking back at past performances of this singer, you realize the breath of her gift. The siren was hypnotic. When the power of her magic began to decline, it must have been devastating.

Houston summed up her own struggle many times, she said ”I finally faced the fact that it isn’t a crime not having friends. Being alone means you have fewer problems. I want to play places where people don’t have to sit in the nosebleed seats and wonder what the hell is going on.” She finally can.

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