He’s made art out of blood, ice and faeces.
“The whole idea is to explore new materials and mediums in the same way that different artworks explore new ideas,” says British sculptor Marc Quinn, whose first ever sculpture was made with bread. He is currently working on large-scale bronze sculptures of conch shells, inspired by his trips along the Malabar coast of India.
Quinn in New Delhi. Photo by Priyanka Parashar/Mint.
Quinn was in New Delhi to attend the India Art Fair (25-29 January), where White Cube, London—the gallery that represents him—was exhibiting his works for the first time in the country (it was also the first time the cutting-edge gallery was participating in the fair).
This isn’t Quinn’s first visit to the country, though. He’s visited India several times before, travelling across Kerala, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, absorbing enough to profess great admiration for Indian classical art traditions. “Chola bronzes are really important pieces of world art. It was art that was made to be at the centre of people’s lives and help them mediate with the world…that’s precisely what contemporary art in public spaces attempts to do.”
Apart from scoping out the Indian art scene—Quinn mentions Subodh Gupta, Bharti Kher and Alwar Balasubramaniam as Indian contemporary artists whose work he’s been following—speaking at a couple of panels at the fair, and presenting the 2011 Škoda Prize for Indian contemporary art, Quinn’s visit to India was, in part, a recce for an art commission by the British Council that will be unveiled in January 2013. While the nature of the project and the venue are still being finalized, both Quinn and Adam Pushkin, head of arts, British Council India, say that it will be in an “outdoor, non-commercial show” in a public space.
Quinn, 48, is often clubbed with the Young British Artists, or YBAs, a group of artists who began to exhibit in London in the late 1980s. A graduate of history of art from Cambridge University, and self-taught as a sculptor, Quinn was the first artist to be represented by Jay Jopling, the English art dealer who founded White Cube, and went on to represent several YBAs.
White Cube brought down two works by Quinn for Indian audiences. Alongside works by Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, there was Quinn’s Vortex of Desire—one from his long-running series of oversized orchid sculptures cast in bronze, and a floral-themed painting redolent with what Quinn calls “the colours of India”.
Out of the body: Self(2006), Quinn’s self-portrait, made with his own frozen blood. Courtesy Marc Quinn Studio.
What the gallery didn’t bring down—perhaps because transporting them would be a logistical nightmare—were Quinn’s signature pieces in the art world: his self-portraits, titled
Self, made from his own frozen blood.
In keeping with his use of non-traditional materials in understanding the realities of the corporeal body, Quinn first created Self in 1991. It was bought by art collector Charles Saatchi for £13,000 (around Rs10.13 lakh now), launching Quinn as a sculptor to watch out for. He continues to make one every five years, documenting his own physical transformation. Carefully maintained in a refrigeration unit, it reminds the viewer of the impermanence of the body: The sculpture will liquefy if the unit is unplugged. Quinn describes these works as a “frozen moment on life support”.
His other artworks also comment on the ephemeral nature of existence. Eternal Spring (1998), for instance, features flowers preserved in perfect bloom by being plunged into sub-zero silicone. Then there’s Garden (2000), which is a walk through installation of impossibly beautiful flowers that will never decay, as they’re kept in cryogenic suspension.
When asked about treading close to Hindu and Buddhist philosophy with these recurring themes, Quinn says he doesn’t read “existing” philosophy but bases his works on how he interacts with the world. “These are fundamental themes of human life and that’s why religions deal with them. In a way, art is like concrete philosophy.”
Quinn’s artistic engagements have also led him to comment on genetic modification and hybridism. He has repeatedly surveyed the distanced relationship we have with our bodies by creating sculptures of pop icons such as supermodel Kate Moss (including one in gold), actor Pamela Anderson and the pornography model Chelsea Charms.
For all his talk of art as philosophy, Quinn is as enthusiastic about trying out new technology as he is about new materials. His ongoing project with the conch shells uses elite 3D scanning technology to create gigantic replicas. “With this technology, you end up with an object that’s uncannily like the little one, but big,” he says. He doesn’t like using technology in ways that are obvious. “When you see the shell, your first reaction shouldn’t be ‘What technology was used’ but ‘Wow...what animal lived there?’”
Quinn’s observations on the changes in the art world over his 20-year practice are tied to how his audience has changed. “I can communicate with a much wider audience now,” he says. The definition of what a sculpture is—or more broadly, what art is—has also changed.
“DNA jelly of plant species makes for an art installation now,” he says, referring to his own installation, Garden. “It wouldn’t have been ‘art’ 20 years ago.”
anindita.g@livemint.com