Following are some quotations from the AI interview with the Britpack artist Damien Hirst. Artist's new works including a series named after Philip Larkin's (1922-1985) poems as well as after Christian icons, are on display in Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles.
" [...] I did a load of medicine cabinets a long time ago and I named them after Sex Pistols songs. I suppose I must be getting old if I’m naming work after Philip Larkin poems. I don’t know. They’re quite religious-looking, and I think I was just trying to find a way to avoid the religiousness by saying they’re named after poems rather than naming them after churches or anything like that. I’m still coming to terms with my own religion. . .
[...] rather than be frightened by notoriety, I’ve embraced it. When I was growing up I had a lot of friends, older artists, and each of them was just sitting in his studio, painting away, waiting to be discovered. I always thought that was a lonely, sad, depressing pursuit and I was more frightened of that than anything else. I wanted to make art that had an audience, and I didn’t want to wait for that audience to find me. I wanted to go out and get it.
[...] As an artist you’re looking for universal triggers. You want it both ways. You want it to have an immediate impact, and you want it to have deep meanings as well. I’m striving for both. But I hate it when people write things that sound like they’ve swallowed a fucking dictionary. When I make the artwork, anything I say, I try to deny it as well at the same time, so you make viewers responsible for interpretation. I think that’s good. I want to make artwork that makes people question their own lives, rather than give them any answers. Because answers always turn out to be wrong further down the line, but questions are exciting forever."
