Artist Research - Marc Quinn

Self

Selfis a self-portrait of the artist, but one that literally uses his body as material since the cast of Quinn's head, immersed in frozen silicone, is created from ten pints of his own blood. In this way, the materiality of the sculpture has both a symbolic and real function. The work was made at a time when Quinn was an alcoholic and a notion of dependency – of things needing to be plugged in or connected to something to survive – is apparent since the work needs electricity to retain its frozen appearance. A further iteration made every five years, this series of sculptures presents a cumulative index of passing time and an ongoing self-portrait of the artist's ageing and changing self.

Skeletons

Quinn sees the skeleton as representative of an everyman, an abstraction of a person since it is the part of the body which transcends death. The sculptures Angel and Waiting for Godot take the form of a praying skeleton and are an ironic reference to the idea of waiting for answers – or for some kind of external power to guide our life. The series of burning sculptures such as Matter into Light: On the Transformation of Energy use real flames to reflect the idea that we all become part of the world after death and were inspired by the burning funeral pyres in Varanasi, India. Quinn has also created a sense of resurrection in the levitating skeletons, where flowers and fruit emerging from the skeleton suggest transcendence.

Reflective Thinking：

Marc Quinn is a sculptor known for bold innovation and challenging traditions. He most prominently uses unconventional creative materials to discuss the variability of the body and how to define human life. His works are so bold and straightforward that many audiences even feel sick and nauseated in the museum. Sometimes the words "bloody" are appropriate.