Marc Quinn
Marc Quinn's wide-ranging oeuvre displays a preoccupation with the mutability of the body and the dualisms that define human life: spiritual and physical, surface and depth, cerebral and sexual. Using a multiplicity of materials, from ice and blood to glass, marble or lead, Quinn develops these paradoxes into experimental, conceptual works, mostly figurative in form.
Quinn’s work often deals with the distanced relationship we have with our bodies, highlighting how the conflict between the ‘natural’ and ‘cultural’ grips the contemporary psyche. In 1999, Quinn began a series of marble sculptures of amputees to review the aspirations of Greek and Roman statuary and their depictions of an idealised whole. Quinn’s enlarged sculpture of Alison Lapper, a woman born without arms, when she was heavily pregnant, formed a major piece of public art for Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth. Other key themes include genetic modification and hybridism: Garden (2000) is a walk-through installation of beautiful flowers that will never decay; and his ‘Eternal Spring’ sculptures feature flowers preserved in perfect bloom by being plunged into sub-zero silicone. Quinn has also explored potential artistic uses of DNA, making a portrait by extracting strands of DNA and placing it in a test-tube. DNA Garden (2001) contains the DNA of over 75 plant species and two humans: a re-enactment of the Garden of Eden on a cellular level. Quinn’s diverse, poetic work meditates on our attempts to understand or overcome the transience of human life through scientific knowledge and artistic expression.
Quinn has exhibited in many group and solo exhibitions, including Sonsbeek ’93, Arnhem (1993), Give and Take, V&A Museum, London (2001), Statements 7, 50th Venice Biennale (2003), Gwangju Biennale (2004), Tate Gallery, London (1995), Kunstverein Hannover (1999), Fondazione Prada, Milan (2000), Tate Liverpool (2002), Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2004), Groninger Museum, Groningen (2006) and MACRO, Rome (2006).