Last modified on Tue 13 Apr 2021 07.26 EDT
Damien Hirst has begun a year-long âtakeoverâ of the echoing concrete-floored spaces of Gagosian Britannia Street. Thereâs even a readymade hashtag #HirstTakeover, like a cry for attention. I canât see how a year-long exposure in a single commercial gallery can be good for any artist, but with Hirst showing something somewhere all the time anyway, I donât suppose it will stretch him too much. It is the staff at the London gallery I worry about. The works will be changing over the year, but no details are available.
The works filling the gallery presently come under the rubric of Fact Paintings and Fact Sculptures, and span more than 20 years between 1993 and the present. The earliest work is a cowâs head, with tongue lolling, bleeding quietly on the gallery floor. If it is blood (there might be health and safety issues if it is). More likely it is resin. Called Hot Love, Iâm not sure about the head either