OT Response to the Telegraph’s Article: ‘Damien Hirst Artwork Defaced by Occupy Protesters’

Yesterday the Telegraph linked graffiti daubed on the artist Damien Hirst’s sculpture, ‘Hymn‘, to an article published in The Occupied Times. The 20-foot tall, painted bronze sculpture of a human anatomy model is currently on display outside the Tate Modern as part of Hirst’s retrospective exhibition. It was sprayed with the word ‘Occupy’ on the left leg. The Telegraph described the graffiti as “lazy.” “It is the Occupy movement’s latest attempt to take action against the free market and, in this instance, its consequences on art,” reported the Telegraph. “The article, by Kester Brewin, calls for artists to return to a creative process that is not about “wealth”. It also asks Occupy protesters not to direct their ire exclusively at the world of banking.”

The Telegraph quoted from Brewin’s OT article that Hirst is “the man who has defined the capitalist approach to art more than any other… he is the brash Goldman Sachs of the art world. Bankers have been the focus of ire for some time now, but their values and morals are lived out in so many others who exist in many other fields.” In response to the story, Brewin told the OT, “The piece I wrote for The Occupied Times in no way encouraged defacing of any works of art.” Brewin’s critique of Hirst’s work questioned the artist’s right to claim certain artworks as his own, “He sub-contracted out the actual making of many of his works – the spot paintings, the spin paintings, the medicine cabinets – to a team of employees. These people worked for a fixed wage to create production line pieces from stock components that now sell for vast sums. Sums which they, of course, despite their labour, were excluded from sharing.”

Hirst was sued in 2000 for breach of copyright, because his Hymn sculpture is an enlargement of part of the Young Scientist Anatomy Set. According to the Guardian, Hirst agreed to pay an undisclosed sum. He remains a controversial figure in the highly elitest art world. Brewin, who is a teacher, told the OT, “Hirst, as a hugely popular artist, is very entitled to a major exhibition at a prominent gallery, but, as such, his work in public spaces must be open to public critique, and many will find the themes that his art interrogates uncomfortable at a time of austerity.”

The Occupy meme has become almost ubiquitous since its inception. It has been used as a brand by the global movement but has also been appropriated by others as it has entered the lexicon as a noun as well as a verb. The tagger’s relationship with Occupy is unclear.

Acknowledging the historical importance of the movement – or at least its symbols – several museums have put items from the St Paul’s camp on display. One piece of memorabilia in the Museum of London’s collection is the “UBS You Owe Us” banner from the now-evicted Bank of Ideas in Hackney. The banner on the disused UBS building highlighted and challenged the wasteful nature of neo-liberalism by forcing the two sentiments to share the same space. The group Liberate Tate has been fighting for years about the same issue, seeking to ‘liberate’ artists and museums from the yoke of corporate monies, as Occupy movements across the globe have been fighting to recapture public spaces. The simple tag draws attention to all these issues: the supposed commercial value of Hirst’s work, Tate’s presence on the Southbank and the artistic ‘merit’ of public displays of activism.

Some of the comments on the conservative newspaper’s article appeared to be more critical of Hirst than whoever is responsible for the graffiti. One person wrote, “good work wouldn’t be defaced, people on the street know the difference.” Other comments were more in line with the Telegraph’s “lazy” assumption that because someone had written “Occupy”, it meant that people from the social movement had to be responsible. “I don’t hold Hirst’s artwork in the highest regard. However, you have to be a complete and utter a$$hole to go and deface it. Occupy are even less creative than what they try to destroy,” said another commentator. Another stated, “I thought these people [Occupy] were of no use whatever – perhaps I was too harsh.”