It Figures

PIEK! is an art group based in Amsterdam. Damien Hirst is a contemporary British artist. PIEK! appears to be just starting out; Damien Hirst has exhibited all over the world and his piece The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living sold to an American hedge fund gazillionaire for 8 million dollars.

Before Hirst became a world-famous artist/bad boy he worked at a mortuary where he learned about various preserving chemicals. This is by way of explanation, because The Physical Impossibility is actually a 14-foot dead tiger shark swimming in formaldehyde within a really big aquarium. Hirst deals with death in his art quite a bit. What does this have to do with those PIEK! guys? Well, PIEK! has just made some art which references Hirst called Damien Hirst Trips Over a Diamond the Size of His Head and Dies. It’s a miniature figurine which shows poor Damien lying prostrate on the ground, blood rushing from his head, with the offending diamond at his feet. Hirst has made a living off of displaying dead things, and so PIEK! says that their piece is an ironic take on his oeuvre, and his just desserts. I’m not sure if that’s actual irony or Alanis Morissette irony, but you can decide that for yourself while you look at PIEK!’s website.

— Dan Steckenberg