No Art; No Letters; No Society
12:10 PM
•
BCAM,
Damien Hirst,
LACMA,
Los Angeles,
Medication,
Museum,
Trip Report
•
0
finders
Originally written 9/8/08.
Along with my visit to LACMA, I got to experience the wonderful new experience that is the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, or as it’s often called, the BCAM. As a lover of contemporary art, I was very much excited to step inside and see all the wonderful works of art. And boy were there many! But me also being a huge fan of architecture and cool looking structures, I loved the building. Although simple, it works very well in style. However, I couldn’t help but think that the building was a combination of IKEA and Target, but that’s not a bad thing at all. It fits very well. At the center of the building inside was this elevator that I fell in love with. It was huge and acted more as a moving room than an enclosed space that moves between floors. I love elevators like that, such as the ones at the Getty, but this was on a much bigger scale. And as for the art, it was all great. I love art that tries to be different than what’s out there because it’s new and refreshing and this museum contained nothing but contemporary art.
One piece of artwork that stood out was No Art; No Letters; No Society (Click to view art) by Damien Hirst. It’s basically three large “medicine cabinets” of sorts hanging on the wall with glass windows that contained a ton of medicine from prescriptions to things what looked like bandages and all sorts of related medical things. Mixed in there were a few skulls with ears, mouths, or eyes taped out. The doors were shut, but at the handles of each one, a rosemary hangs.
To me, the whole piece speaks of death. For some reason, I’ve never been comfortable with the whole idea of taking medication every time some little thing hurts or I get a little sick. I think it’s all part of human nature to get a little sick every now and then and taking medicine to stop little thing is not good for the human body in the long run. Well, for one, I hate the taste of most medicines and I have a fear of swallowing pills. But the biggest reason is that well, I just don’t get sick that often. I believe that if I keep taking medicine to cure every little cold or fever that I have, or even a headache or any kind of slight pain, that my body just gets used to it and I get sicker more easily in the future, and when I really need the medicine one day, it won’t act as strong as it should. When I do get sick, it often lasts very short compared to what I see in others; I’ve once had the flu for only a few hours and it went away naturally. I know people who take Tylenol like crazy every day and it just sickens me to take that medication that often for just a headache. I’ve never been a big user of medication in my life. I just feel like I should only take it when it’s absolutely necessary, and thus, it would work on my body much stronger since the viruses in my body have never tackled such medication before, if at all. The way much of society is today, there’s a pill for treating almost everything. It’s too much and it just messes with one’s body. That’s what I see Damien Hirst presenting here; how we use so much medication in our lives (stored in large medicine cabinets help present that idea). The whole whiteness of everything gives it a very sterile hospital feel which gives a whole trying to clean up your life kind of feel, but the other little colors of everything scattered around kind of ruins that a bit since it’s not completely white, kind of how medicine never really completely cures. Of course, there’s a lot of medication scattered around which shows that we use a ton of medicine in our lives. And the rosemary hanging on the handle, I think it shows how we think medicine will save us, much how like Jesus will save all humanity. No doubt about it, medicine has helped society a great deal in serious health issues, but lately, it has been abused in many circumstances that could probably mess up humanity's immune systems in the future.
Along with my visit to LACMA, I got to experience the wonderful new experience that is the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, or as it’s often called, the BCAM. As a lover of contemporary art, I was very much excited to step inside and see all the wonderful works of art. And boy were there many! But me also being a huge fan of architecture and cool looking structures, I loved the building. Although simple, it works very well in style. However, I couldn’t help but think that the building was a combination of IKEA and Target, but that’s not a bad thing at all. It fits very well. At the center of the building inside was this elevator that I fell in love with. It was huge and acted more as a moving room than an enclosed space that moves between floors. I love elevators like that, such as the ones at the Getty, but this was on a much bigger scale. And as for the art, it was all great. I love art that tries to be different than what’s out there because it’s new and refreshing and this museum contained nothing but contemporary art.
One piece of artwork that stood out was No Art; No Letters; No Society (Click to view art) by Damien Hirst. It’s basically three large “medicine cabinets” of sorts hanging on the wall with glass windows that contained a ton of medicine from prescriptions to things what looked like bandages and all sorts of related medical things. Mixed in there were a few skulls with ears, mouths, or eyes taped out. The doors were shut, but at the handles of each one, a rosemary hangs.
To me, the whole piece speaks of death. For some reason, I’ve never been comfortable with the whole idea of taking medication every time some little thing hurts or I get a little sick. I think it’s all part of human nature to get a little sick every now and then and taking medicine to stop little thing is not good for the human body in the long run. Well, for one, I hate the taste of most medicines and I have a fear of swallowing pills. But the biggest reason is that well, I just don’t get sick that often. I believe that if I keep taking medicine to cure every little cold or fever that I have, or even a headache or any kind of slight pain, that my body just gets used to it and I get sicker more easily in the future, and when I really need the medicine one day, it won’t act as strong as it should. When I do get sick, it often lasts very short compared to what I see in others; I’ve once had the flu for only a few hours and it went away naturally. I know people who take Tylenol like crazy every day and it just sickens me to take that medication that often for just a headache. I’ve never been a big user of medication in my life. I just feel like I should only take it when it’s absolutely necessary, and thus, it would work on my body much stronger since the viruses in my body have never tackled such medication before, if at all. The way much of society is today, there’s a pill for treating almost everything. It’s too much and it just messes with one’s body. That’s what I see Damien Hirst presenting here; how we use so much medication in our lives (stored in large medicine cabinets help present that idea). The whole whiteness of everything gives it a very sterile hospital feel which gives a whole trying to clean up your life kind of feel, but the other little colors of everything scattered around kind of ruins that a bit since it’s not completely white, kind of how medicine never really completely cures. Of course, there’s a lot of medication scattered around which shows that we use a ton of medicine in our lives. And the rosemary hanging on the handle, I think it shows how we think medicine will save us, much how like Jesus will save all humanity. No doubt about it, medicine has helped society a great deal in serious health issues, but lately, it has been abused in many circumstances that could probably mess up humanity's immune systems in the future.
✗ Brian
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