November 2008

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Two unrelated exhibitions open this week in UK galleries: ‘Stephen Gregory: Down to the Bone’ at London’s Opus Gallery and ‘Unpopular Culture’ at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea. Neither features the work of Damien Hirst, yet both have received national press attention because of an apparent link to the Brit artist. Both shows contain skulls – among many other exhibits – which has drawn comparison with Hirst’s $100m diamond encrusted skull entitled For The Love of God. The artist of one show and the curator of the other have felt compelled to justify their use of skulls in the context of Hirst’s piece –but why? As far as we know, the Hirst brand has not (yet) laid a claim to ‘Skull ™’, although it may be only a matter of time.

Steven Gregory’s ‘Down to the Bone’ does indeed include skulls decorated with gems while Grayson Perry’s bronze Head of a Fallen Giant in ‘Unpopular Culture’ is cast from various bits of ‘tourist tat’ and doesn’t use gems or involve an actual cranium. Commentators have pointed out that skulls, along with bones and skeletons, are nothing new in art, from the memento mori of still-life Vanitas paintings to Salvador Dalí.

But the skull is now not so much symbol of mortality from the Old Masters, or even, as Perry claims, ‘a relic of our colonial past’ than it is pirate motif as re-imagined by Disney and rock band T-shirts. Gabriel Orozco’s show at the Serpentine had his chequerboard skull as its main image years before Hirst’s venture. But the image itself may be losing its potency. Yesterday, a cult but commercially successful lingerie company unveiled its latest campaign featuring Kate Moss plastered onto a skull and crossbones to promote… bridal underwear. The skull image, in art or otherwise, may be on its way from brand to bland.

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