Initial Response
The first thing that came to mind when I came across “Lost Love” was that I was intrigued. I am familiar with Hirst’s sculptures and have experienced some of his work first hand; however, everything I had seen created by Hirst was animal related. Lost Love is extremely different for it is some type of doctor’s office. The cliché yet important questions immediately came to mind: What is this? Where is this? Is this a doctor’s office? What kind of doctor? Why are there fish in the doctor’s office? What is the purpose of the part of the sculpture outside of the tank? Is this a gynecologist’s office? Numerous questions continued to come to mind. Lost Love is extremely captivating because it combines and completely immerses industrialization and the science of modern man with nature. The patient chair and doctor’s white coat immediately stand out to me because they seem so out of place in a fish tank. It makes me think of two different scenarios. The first is some kind of shipwreck and the second is a futuristic scene where what was once a practicing place of medicine is now under water due to climate shift and global warming.
Objective Description
The work is a large square tank, roughly the size of a small room about 8 feet high and 8 feet long. The four walls are all made of class and are held together by white metal around its edges. The tank is filled with a sea foam deep aqua tinted water and is completely filled. The tank holds a patient table that is assembled to sit semi-upright and is white and black with stirrups thus leading the viewer to infer that this is a gynecologist’s office. There are other classic doctor’s office essentials like a white chair for the doctor, a jacket stand with a white lab coat, and a table with different tools for the doctor to use on its patient. On top of the tank are many tubes, pipes, cylinders and boxes; it looks like an advanced filtration system for the tank. It is very industrial and factory like.
Technical Decisions
Engineering and planning was essential in creating Lost Love because not only does it require serious planning for it’s assembling due to its various materials, it has to be a working aquarium to accommodate the living tropical fish. In order to build Lost Love, Hirst needed to plan his sculpture very carefully and with great detail to accommodate the array of important elements: living, stationary, and constructing. The sculpture is designed to look like a room was taken out of place. The viewer is not immersed in the sculpture however the viewer is immediately reacting to it. Hirst took a place that is very familiar, especially to the female population, and immersed it in something unordinary. He makes you react. I think that Love Lost is a great title for the piece because it touches on several factors that can be interpreted by the viewer both on a mass and more personal scale. I think that the title touches on two important factors. Firstly that pregnancy, while it is a beautiful and wonderful thing, can also be extremely controversial, lonely, and scary. Many women are single mothers and their pregnancy can be a path to a loss of love and innocence. Secondly I think the title comments on societies’ lack of love and care for the earth and environment, which is leading to climate change, global warming, and eventually a very different world.
The Work in the World
This work relates to women’s health and women’s rights. Throughout history women have faced inequality and discrimination in various parts of society. Abortion is an extremely controversial topic dealt with today. The concept of pro choice, rape, and government involvement and say in what a woman wants to do with her body makes news headlines and directly affects the lives of women every day. This piece highlights a greater significance in the notion that women continually have to fight these problems all over the world. This artwork intrigues me because it takes a simple doctors office but then defines it as a gynecologist’s office, based on the tools and mechanisms in the office, and immerses it in a tank with tropical fish and a filter. The government is filtering and tampering with society, very much like this aquarium and the fish inside of it. The walls barricade them like society and government in various places around the world restrict women. I think Hirst’s Lost Love relates to artwork commenting on social commentary and women’s rights.
The Story it Tells
Hirst’s Lost Love has many layers. It comments on industrialization, feminism, gender roles, society, government, the earth, global warming, nature, man vs. nature, and science. Each of these categories embodies the role society and humans play in the world. It is a piece that reflects lifestyle and the human race. It is modern yet archaic. Ultimately the piece makes you think, stop, and reflect. Evoking emotion and stimulating the mind, Hirst pushes the viewer to create their own responses to his work by taking conventional objects and juxtaposing them with something completely unordinary. Understanding Hirst’s artwork is a process. One must first look at the work as a whole and then slowly dissect and observe each area of the work. The physical, mental, and emotional responses will come naturally as one discovers each new thought and new part. Overall Hirst’s Lost Love is an innovative and intriguing work that continues to shock and captivate its viewers.