Damien Hirst Comes Back With 'Treasures From The Wreck Of The Unbelievable'

The former Turner Prize winner (1995) Damien Hirst has come back with probably his grandest work yet, the "Treasures from the wreck of the unbelievable".

Curated by Elena Guena, Damien Hirst's first ever major solo exhibition runs in two venues, over three floors, displaying 189 artworks and covering 5000 sq.m of museum space in Venice. The two museums, Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana, owned by Francois Pinault, are now filled with Damien Hirst's spectacular mix of fairytales, humor and ancient artifacts collection which are now almost trashed, broken, eroded, and transformed by deep sea creatures.

According to Artnews, Reports stated that the artist Damien Hirst and his team have tried very hard to make us believe the fairytale myth of Cif Amotan II, but have failed somewhere. Amotan, the first-century Antioch freed-slave, turned into an art collector, accumulated many artifacts and loaded the largest ship Apistos (Unbelievable) to bring it to the Sun Temple only to have a founder. The myth of Amotan's "hubris, avarice, and greed" sunk into the Indian Ocean 2000 years ago and in 2008 Damien Hirst excavated the artifacts with his own expenses from the bottom of the ocean.

Several reports are also saying that the choice of watery Venice for exhibiting Damien Hirst's collection, is a brilliant idea. Hirst's grandest work "Treasures from the wreck of the unbelievable" has unfolded the galleries of Venice as a collection of lots of half broken and eroded portraits, sculptures, and idols made of bronze, raisin, gold, jade, malachite, agate etc. Among the artifacts the 18mt tall "Demon with Bowl" statue in the heart of the Palazzo Grassi museum is the most astonishing one. It is made of raisin though, looks like made of bronze. Other artifacts are- "The Lion Woman", quasi-Aztec Calendar Stone, Amotan's 60mt long wooden ship "Apistos", a mouse with a growing human ear in its back, a Hindu goddess Kali like sculpture fighting with a hydra, "Head of Sphinx", "Tadukheba", and three-headed Cerberus etc..

According to Independent, Damien Hirst has tried to give an impact of Egyptian, Roman, and Mayan cultures through his grandest work. It's reported that Damien Hirst has captured everyone's childhood by giving references, including "William Blake", "Barbie", "Mickey Mouse", "Goofy", "Indiana Jones", "Game of Thrones", "The Jungle Book", and "swords" etc. It's also being mentioned that as much as we want to believe that Damien's work is bold, exceptional or "Unbelievable", somehow it's opted that his work is repetitive, a little out of taste and may prove the shipwreck of Damien Hirst's career.

But one thing is unquestionably true that Damien Hirst has put a lot of money to establish his project.  Damien Hirst's grandest work "Treasures from the wreck of the unbelievable" runs from April 9 to Dec. 3, 2017, in Venice, Italy. Anyone who wants to be amazed by Damien Hirst's fertile imagination of ancient artifacts is welcome in the world of his "Treasures from the wreck of the unbelievable".

TagsDamien Hirs Treasure: In Venice, Treasures from the wreck of the unbelievable, Palazzo Grassi museum