My friend, Marc Quinn

Today, instead of talking about myself all the time, I will talk about a close friend of mine Marc Quinn. Marc is a British contemporary artist who has done many great works in the years that I have known him. Marc expresses great interest in the distanced relationship we as humans have with our bodies, and how the 'natural' and 'cultural' has a grip on the contemporary psyche. Marc also like to explore the dualisms that define human life, such as the spiritual and the physical, as well as surface and depth. I am a painter, and Marc is a sculptor. A few of his most interesting works include "Self" (1999), and "Garden" (2000). "Self" was a cast of his own head, made from 4.5l of his own blood. Honestly, I found it a little disturbing, but I feel one should respect a fellow artist's works. A collection of casts of his head were to be made once every 5 years, with 10 pints of blood. Thats a lot of blood. Each portrait of himself is cast at the time it was made, which I suppose depict Marc's physical maturation as an artist over time.

Quite handsome, no? His next work is Garden, my favorite. It is a collection of incompatible plants which are cyrogenically frozen into place in a common environment. According to Marc, the plants were cast in silicone, then frozen to prevent them from drying out. I remember Marc said "The flowers, when they freeze, become pure image. They become an image of a perfect flower, because in reality their matter is dead and they are suspended in a state of transformation between pure image and pure matter."

This installation is my favorite, because the flowers are pretty. Just kidding, I feel that this installation aptly and effectively conveys Marc's ideas and it is also aesthetically very appealing.