It can be discouraging staring at a pile of puzzle pieces, but if you analyse them a bit better one by one lying them flat on a table, you easily start getting an idea about what the final picture will look like.
In the same way, if we look from the right angle at events happening around us, we may easily find anwers, connections or even clues about certain trends. Let's analyse for example the "Damien Hirst (Art) - Prada (Fashion) - Qatar (Money)" puzzle, moving from the art and fashion clues first.
Roughly three weeks ago, Damien Hirst opened his first retrospective in Doha, Qatar. Entitled "Relics" (on until 30th January 2014 at the Alriwaq Doha), the exhibition traces tthe artist's career from his beginnings to his more recent projects, and is accompanied by a catalogue featuring an interview to the artist by Nicholas Serota, Director of Tate (the Qatar Museum Authority sponsored last year’s Damien Hirst retrospective at London's Tate Modern), and essays by the Qatari writer, visual artist and Gulf Futurism theorist Sophia Al Maria and the Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid.
Around the same time, Prada revealed its collaboration with Hirst: the Pharmacy Juice Bar (directly inspired by Hirst's eponymous restaurant that opened in 1998 in London and closed ten years ago), installed in a bedouin tent in the desert north of Doha, together with "Prada Oasis", a shop selling two different bags designed by Hirst/Prada and sold via silent auction a couple of weeks ago. The proceeds from their sale went to the charity Reach Out To Asia (ROTA), stewarded by Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, daughter of the former emir of Qatar and chairperson of the Qatar Museums Authority (QMA).
Widely copied all over the Internet, the press release for Prada/Hirst's "Entomology Bags" states that the designs (produced in 20 samples) feature insects such as the "Campanotus giganteum" (they probably meant "Camponotus gigas"), the "Nephile pilipes" (should actually "Nephila pilipes"), the "Prosopocoilus occipitalis", the "Eupholus cuvieri", and the "Pachyrhyncus orbifer" (should actually be "Pachyrrhynchus orbifer") frozen in plexiglass, while the exterior of the bags features representations of the species trapped inside.
The insects could be read as a reference to Hirst's best known works from his animals in formaldehyde to his "Entomology Paintings" like "Nessus" (2009) with thousands of bugs arranged in kaleidoscopic patterns.
The handbags also display some connections with the insect theme as tackled by Elsa Schiaparelli in her "Pagan Collection" (1938; a collection Prada already pilfered in the Winter 1999 with coats and skirts covered in leaf motifs and decorated here and there with crystal insects). As many of you may remember, in Schiaparelli's case we had insects appliqued on the collar of a jacket, used as the buttons of a skirt suit, to decorate a belt/hat or a clear plastic necklace (see this post to get an idea). But this is a different story, so let's pass onto the third clue: money.
According to ArtReview, Her Excellency Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, chair of Qatar Museums Authority, is the most powerful person in art. Her family is indeed estimated to spend $1 billion per year on art.
Al-Thani bought last year a version of Cézanne’s "The Card Players" (c. 1895) for $250 million, splashing also almost £10m on a Damien Hirst medicine cabinet (thanks to her efforts Doha recently hosted exhibitions by contemporary art stars like Prada's darling Francesco Vezzoli).
While Al-Thani should be praised for trying to transform Qatar into a hub of art and culture, her efforts haven't had any real impact on democracy in the country but quite often call to mind the art collector frenzy displayed by other wealthy characters à la Dasha Zhukova and inspired by the principle, "If that museum can have a (add name of painfully hip artist), I can have that as well!"
The ArtReview list and the Hirst-Prada connection with Qatar (erroneusly taken by some commentators as a genuine fashion and art collaboration...) actually display a simple truism: it is not talent that rules the art world at the moment, but money, in the same way money rules the fashion industry.
The most worrying thing about this truism, though, is the fact that money is also redefining the rules for a new generation of people and a new cultural landscape: Hirst can't be blamed for the capitalist society we live in, but, together with many other modern trendy and hip artists, he is in many ways responsible for encouraging young people to think that you don't need to spend hours studying or painfully nurturing your talents to produce art. You can indeed make money pickling a lamb, covering a skull in diamonds, making visually pleasing compositions with insects or turning an anatomical toy model that belonged to your son into a 20ft bronze sculpture.
The same principle applies to fashion: why sitting down and work hard researching new silhouettes and textiles, when you can make money reproducing a vintage piece?
Money is even more important than small details. There were 3 spelling mistakes in the names of the insects inspiring the Prada/Hirst bags on the press release. Yes, you could blame it on the PR head officer, but, surely, somebody may have rechecked the names before sending the release around just to prove they weren't casually referencing entomology, but knew what they were doing.
So the boundaries between what is art/fashion and what is a con are suddenly blurred in the name of money, that becomes a vital piece of the puzzle rather than a mere link between the two disciplines. Suddenly nothing is casual anymore, but everything fits in: Hirst, the rich artist who has taken in his career some dubious creative decisions; Miuccia Prada, one of the most powerful women in Italy, who has again taken some creatively dubious decisions fashion-wise (dubbed with the trendy definition "ugly chic" by the media) and Al-Thani, representing financial power.
There is a last piece in this art, fashion and money puzzle: as early as 2011, the Fondazione Prada announced it was going to collaborate with the QMA and launch a curatorial award. The competition eventually materialised only this year. The "Curate Award" asks participants to submit within December in a video format ideas for a curatorial research and project. The winner will be chosen by a panel including Al-Thani, Miuccia Prada and Rem Koolhaas (apart from the obvious Prada connection, OMA studio was chosen in March to build Airport City, the development linking Doha with the new Hamad International Airport).
Bets are open about what the curatorial project will be about (expect something along the futurism/architecture/arty lines) and who will be the winner. But if you have been very careful while reading this post you may have already spotted the name (or you can re-read the third paragraph in this post and guess - clue: no, it's not Hirst). Well-done, the very final piece to your art, fashion and money puzzle has finally been added. Puzzle completed.
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