Marc Quinn, self

Question 1

date

Answer 1

1991

Question 2

subject matter

Answer 2

self portrait of artist, cast of quinns head

uses his body (10 pints of his own blood)

Question 3

list of all materials

Answer 3

Blood (artist’s own), liquid silicone, stainless steel, glass

Question 4

scale

Answer 4

lifesize, 208 x 63 x 63 cm,

Question 5

how did quinn use his own body

Answer 5

10 pints of his own blood (which has been pasteurised) around same amount contained in an adult human body

use of blood shows truth to materials

Question 6

what series is this a part of

Answer 6

*It is the first cast in the series of five sculptures - which Quinn produced every five years over 20 years to catalogue the ageing process.

*This series of sculptures presents a cumulative index of passing time and an ongoing self-portrait of the artist’s changing self and blood as well as physiognomic mutations.

Question 7

how is truth to materials shown

Answer 7

*The congealed blood and crusts of material coming out of the nose etc make it a visceral sculpture

Question 8

time period produced over

Answer 8

20 years

Question 9

what is it about

Answer 9

*Self is a self-portrait of the artist; a cast of Quinn’s head

captures aging process and is about the temporal nature/ transcience of life and the nature of change

about temporality and human evolution

connection to mortality

connection to dependency

Question 10

how are oppositites repeated in this sculpture

Answer 10

*There is a universe of opposites present in this sculpture: life and death; material and im-material; generation and deterioration; essence and existence.

Question 11

critical quote from artist

Answer 11

‘frozen moment on life support’

Question 12

what is it reliant on an what is the message behind this

Answer 12

reliant on a built in refridgeration support system

suggests it will live on after quinns death (defies death and the concept of mortality)

however fact it is reliant on refridgeration system shows a theme of dependency of humanity (will decay if refridgerator is switvhed off)

unit, reminding the viewer of the fragility of existence.

relates to quinns dependency upon alcohol

Question 13

how does the head contrast with the pedestal

Answer 13

*The carnal head contrasts with the shiny, sterile steel pedestal.

Question 14

what type of art is this

Answer 14

*bio-art - Sanguineous structure

*hyper-realism

Question 15

formal analysis

Answer 15

life sized sculpture and plinth based off human proportions

highly polished base reflects viewer to themselves (idea of it being a self portrait of every man so they realise themes of deopendency and transience of life)

Question 16

effect of polished base

Answer 16

highly polished stainless steel base base reflects viewer to themselves (idea of it being a self portrait of every man so they realise themes of deopendency and transience of life)

Question 17

style

Answer 17

bio art, hyper realism

(unsettling, gives art a sense of consciousness and humanity0

Question 18

effect of use of glass

Answer 18

*The encased behind glass makes the head seem like a detached specimen
(scientific element capturing the anatomy of human form)

Question 19

expression

Answer 19

calm, closed eyes (mirrors death mask)

exemplifies idea of mortality- momento mori (inevitability of death)

Question 20

link to quinns father

Answer 20

was a scientist- explains specimen like interpretation

Question 21

link to quinns mother

Answer 21

mother was a potter (combines science of dad and art of mother)

Question 22

use of mother and father profession

Answer 22

interweaves the two, identifies this with his background that created him- another link to idea of life and death and biological processes

Question 23

interest in blood as a material link

Answer 23

links to his desire to exploreinterior and exterior of the body

Question 24

process

Answer 24

20 years

blood was taken by a doctor over a period of 5 months and frozen to -70

barrier of silocone was used to stop blood disintegrating

Question 25

how doe sthe sculpture sit

Answer 25

sits in a limbo- simultaneously alive and dead

Question 26

critical quote from babington

Answer 26

The sculpture sits in a limbo- simultaneously alive and dead.real and 'stimulated'- Jaklyn Babington

Question 27

where did quinn study

Answer 27

*Quinn attended Robinson College for three years at Cambridge University (he studied Histo-ry and History of Art). -was deeply embedded in the history of art -knew about classical allusions in work -He studied Rembrandt's self-portraits during his art history course and "thought it would be quite interesting to make a contemporary version of that".

Question 28

critical quote on his study of rembrandt at Cambridge

Answer 28

*He studied Rembrandt's self-portraits during his art history course and "thought it would be quite interesting to make a contemporary version of that".

Question 29

how is this work ispired by classical work

Answer 29

the bust - Influenced by the funerary mask of Tutankhamun

Question 30

what is Cryogenics and Cryo-preservation and how was he influenced by it

Answer 30

*Cryogenics and Cryo-preservation, where organs are kept at very low temperatures in order to be preserved, which links to Cryonics, which is where people are preserved at very low temperatures (-196°C) in the hope of being resuscitated in the future. *Interest in the idea of freezing and then thawing to come alive again. Marc Quinn once saw a frog that although was frozen, was not technically dead, and when thawed came back to life. links to the theme of mortality

Question 31

process of making

Answer 31

* It is a cast sculpture – a ‘life-cast’ (cast sculpture involves making a mould and then pouring a molten material in).... 1.Quinn created composites of casts of the front and back of his head 2.Blood was taken by a doctor from his body over a period of five months (1 pint every 6 weeks). 3.Many technicians helped with this studio-based practice - technicians poured 5.7 litres (10 pints) of combined plasma inside the silicon hollow fibreglass & plaster mould of Quinn's own head. 4.The blood was frozen to minus 70 degrees centigrade. 5.Once frozen, the mould was removed and the sculpture is carefully placed inside "a so-phisticated deep freeze". 6.A barrier of silicone was created around the head to prevent the blood becoming freeze-dried and disintegrating. 7.It was placed into a purpose-built case whose temperature is set at minus 18 degrees to prevent it from melting.

Question 32

how was quinn concerned with the intrinsic meaning of materials

Answer 32

*Quinn is concerned with the intrinsic meaning of materials; Along with blood, Quinn used bread, coconut faeces, placenta, infant formula, and DNA to depict himself. *Quinn has spoken of his interest in blood as a material – the frozen blood has a kind of iri-descence and sparkly quality: ‘It’s horrific, but it’s also deeply seductive.’

Question 33

quinn critical quote on making an alive sculpture

Answer 33

*‘I wanted something that was more alive than a normal sculpture, that was dependent, that could only exist in certain conditions and was completely made of ‘myself’.

Question 34

quinn critical quote on using blood as a material

Answer 34

*Why blood? ‘I wanted to make works that, in a way, regarded life and its fragility, and I wanted to express that purely using the language of sculpture. I wanted both form and con-tent to be me. '

Question 35

what movement was quinn a part of

Answer 35

the Brit Art movement

Question 36

when was it displayed in the saatchi gallery

Answer 36

*Saatchi displayed it in the "Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection” at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1997.

Question 37

how was it recieved

Answer 37

*When it was first exhibited, it drew gasps of repulsion and admiration alike.

Question 38

who did saatchi sell it to

Answer 38

*When it was first exhibited, it drew gasps of repulsion and admiration alike.

Question 39

baking