Artist # 12 Marc Quinn

I remember seeing one piece in class from Marc Quinn and it was very gross. It was his head cast with his own blood. I don't like blood and the fact that it's his blood and he had to save it and extract it is even worse. If he used someone else's blood, that would be even more messed up. I learned that he used close to ten pints of his own blood saved up over about a five month time span. I would never think of using my own blood for a piece so he is definitely thinking outside the box. The piece has to be in this refrigeration case, to keep it in good condition because of the blood.

I looked at other pieces he's done and it looks like he's fascinated with the human body. Many of his sculptures are of body's, but in different forms than you would normally see. A couple of them in forms that are impossible to be in. Only people who are extremely flexible and have some kind of joint problem or something could be in these positions.



I couldn't find what these are made of. I read a long article and it talked about marble, but to me, they don't really look like marble. I thought it was interesting that the first one is wearing a bathing suit. I'm glad that he chose not to make these girls naked, because that would be pretty awkward with the positions they're in. I think it's more about the movement of the body and the flexibility and functions of the body. I also thought it was interesting that they're completely white, no color. To me, that says they're not supposed to be realistic, and the positions say that too. People don't just sit down like this. When the sculpture is white, everything around it becomes it's background. I think it interacts with its surroundings better that way.

Here are a few more of Marc Quinn's sculptures:



I was drawn to the baby when I first saw it. I like how it's this huge sculpture of a baby, something that's small, and it looks like it's just floating. Only the baby's hand is on the ground, the rest looks so effortlessly held up. I think this piece is very successful because of that. It makes me wonder how it's being held in that position. It's also very odd at the same time. Why is there this giant baby sculpture in the park?

The last sculpture is very odd, I honestly don't even know what to say about it. It looks like a person that was born with some kind of disorder that didn't allow parts of the body to grow and develop properly. It almost looks like a half baby/ half adult. The only piece that I saw of Marc Quinn's that I really didn't like was Self (his head cast with his blood). I liked looking at his other sculptures. They were different and somewhat refreshing.