DIY Damien Hirst?
I have come across something a bit weird. At first I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but now I am ninety-five per cent sure that it is a joke.
Ninety-five-ish per cent.
Damien Hirst | For the Love of God
IARTISTLONDON is the cool new brand that enables you to make real contemporary pieces of art from the comfort of your home. All those pieces that you always wanted to have but couldn’t afford. We believe art should be for everyone. Our boxes contain all the necessary elements so you only have to concentrate on creating. In no time you will have a masterpiece created by yourself. It couldn’t be easier!
IARTISTLONDON presents the world’s first affordable DIY high art sets.
Free the artist within you.
I copied that directly from their website. But I feel okay about it because IARTISTLONDON doesn’t seem to have any qualms about blatantly breaching other people’s copyright, so why should I?
What am I even talking about? Let me just copy over another large tract of text from their website. I simply can’t convey their enthusiasm in my own words.
IARTISTLONDON is a brand new way of creating your very own contemporary work of art. It’s quick, it’s easy and you don’t need any artistic training or ability to start making great pieces! We supply you with all the necessary tools to produce your personalised copy of an original master.
You will get great art for just a fraction of the original price. Why spend millions of pounds? We have made high art affordable so you can beat the credit crunch. We are obsessed with keeping the prices low because the smaller the price, the greater the number of people who can actually afford the art. Anyone can do it. In addition, the result is an immensely satisfying and unique work of art has that priceless added value of being made by you.
This year’s catalogue is filled with new products, new ideas and new lower prices, to make it even easier to create art that truly suits your life.
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. GUARANTEED.
Perplexing.
After reading this I was rather concerned about the fact that IARTISTLONDON had apparently identified a market for DIY high art. Who are these people that want to buy a kit, so that they, in their lounge rooms, can recreate an influential piece of contemporary art whilst sitting in front of EastEnders? In my mind I commenced an impassioned dressing down of the ‘democratization’ of art gone mad.
I read on. What could consumers of IARTISTLONDON purchase, I wondered? The flagship of the company is IHIRST, a DIY reproduction of Damien Hirst’s For the Love of God, pictured above. I can see the appeal of this, for people who find themselves attracted to shiny objects. There’s also an IBANKSY, with BANKSYMACHINES located around London, where you can install your own stencil (six to collect!) in Banksy’s own home turf.
Scepticism entered my mind.
It was replaced by a sort of wry appreciation when I read about IQUINN. IQUINN is based on a work by Marc Quinn in which the artist collected his own blood, and made from it a frozen blood-cast of his head. With IQUINN, you can do the same.
Very clever IARTISTLONDON. I’m choosing to accept this as a joke. The alternative is way too disturbing.
Check it out for yourself: http://www.iartistlondon.com/
