Damien Hirst @ Gagosians - Worldwide (1/12/12)

Hong Kong photos.

mr. juggernut visited all the locations -

http://instagram.com/p/jEFXV

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well, i believe the free print for completion of the challenge was the main motivation and should be worth way more than the airfare.

interesting program naivejohn. interesting that your HR would increase when you liked something.

Sorry for the double post, but looking at the comment under the picture of his stamped card, I see that he says "we" did it. If he and his wife or sibling or whoever both did the trip... that's actually smart. They'd end up with two prints. You could sell one and cover your trip, essentially getting to see the world for free-ish, and you'd still have a print on your wall. Not sure if that's his plan, but it would be one way of skinning the cat to mitigate cost.

such a brilliant marketing idea.

Thanks for the info insomniac. Yeah, if he just saw airports, I think he did it "wrong" too. Why not spend some time in each city, enjoying what it has to offer - art, culture, food, history, architecture!

And doing it alone mean he'll certainly hold on to the print if he's only getting one.

Hidy Ho Neighbors… Just finished up my travel log for this quest and posted it here.

Sorry for the late response to this thread on my trip. I guess my absence and delay in response caused some speculation. So let me address the comments below.



I talked to Sleep about this and he meant that the free print would be necessary motivation for most people who attempt to complete the challenge. He was NOT referring to me in this instance. People who are involved in AM know that I already booked my trip to UK and France to catch shows and do studio visits. So this isn’t a stamp grab for the sake of having an expensive print to flip. (kinda be a bad look for AM & Artchival since I had requested Damien to personalize it to me and AM…)

I felt like I wanted to represent not only AM, but artchival so that’s why I used juggernut3 instead of “ArrestedMotion” sort of an inside thing so people in our community would know it’s me doing the challenge instead of an overall “look at our website” pub grab. Kind of a “if you know… you know” sort of an inside wink.



Insomniac… that’s a very general assumption based on a very public bias of Hirst.

While you are entitled to you opinion, I whole-heartedly disagree with you. I don’t think it’s sad at all what I did. If I thought it would be sad to “just to see some dots... “ then it’s pretty obvious that I wouldn’t do it. There’s been a lot of "haters" on Damien Hirst, it’s almost trendy to trash him. I try not to bash something until I’ve seen it in person. His concepts may seem simple from the computer screen, but there’s a little more to it than just dots... that’s like saying Pollack is just splashes of paint or Rothko is just geometric blurs. It’s conceptual art. The concept is just as important as what is there for your eyes.

I’m not going to try and sway you that this is the best art in the world, but his works with the spots fit in perfectly with these overall scientific themes that he’s cultivated all these years. Love him or hate him, you have to give credit as Epicfai stated, this “Challenge” was consistent with his virulent marketing that he’s known for. It’s created quite a buzz. With that said, he’s already got everyone’s attention. Several artists have told me that the worst art “are the ones that people are indifferent to and causes no emotion or reaction” If you google reviews for this show, almost everyone critics and bloggers alike are talking about it. So in the end Damien did what every artists attempts to do.



The second part of your comments baffled me. Lots of assumptions that you personified onto me. First off, you can do a lot in 9 days (not just the inside of airports). All it takes is a lot of research, planning and dedication. As you can see in my post, I didn’t just make a stamp run in and out of each gallery before jumping back into the taxi for the next flight. People on Artchival and AM that know me could attest that I enjoy the heck out of life and don’t like to let moments pass me by. Even if I’m tired, I’ll make an effort to put my best feet forward. I argue that I did in my 9 days is comparable to what many tourists do in three weeks. Maybe I got less sleep and was a little less relaxing, but from a sights, food and art point of view, my activities were tailored to my busy itinerary. It’s quality not quantity. Again, that’s just me, I’m sure you’ll do plenty with your three weeks. I just choose to spend less time doing a whole lot more.

Finally to answer your last assumption… No, I will not be writing anything off for AM at this point… why? Because AM makes no money. For the last 4 years Sleep, the crew and I have run the website pro bono and write about art for nothing. So with no income you can’t ask the tax man for any breaks. I paid for this trip with my own money. (Shout out to my friends for letting me couch surf on this tour!). This trip was made for the love of it. So that print is going on my wall.



Swabie, it wasn’t about the print (although it didn't hurt). It was all the reasons I stated above. Visiting some great shows, hanging with some of my favorite artists, visiting cities that I have never had a chance to visit ever before, getting to eat amazing food, opportunity to take a load of touristy pics… etc.

For those reasons I don’t think I “did it wrong”. I may have been a little worn down with my travels, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Finally to clarify, why I used “we” in AM related articles instead of “I”. Arrested Motion is an entity that’s formed by more than just Sleepboy and myself. It takes a whole team of people such as Sven, Khoi, Stephen, Ken, Sandra, Patrick, Joe, Jared, etc… to pull off on a daily basis. So that’s why I use we instead of I as that’s what is represented.

There are tandems traveling to get the free print such as Jason Mitura & Laurent Gil (CEO & President of Silicone Valley Mobile tech firm Viewdle) and Isabelle Taylor & Kalina King (Fashion Consignment at Jane Consignment). They definitely can benefit from economy of scale and mitigate cost. But I’m happy to have done it the way I did.



Good eye Epic. It was an installation art. As mentioned above. This challenge was 100% vintage Hirst. It was a Willy Wonka marketing epidemic that only he and his artistic/marketing genius could create. How else can you get a bunch of Ham-stars like us to run through this world obstacle course?! Seeing the first three winners of the challenge scramble and finish at different locations and taking different routes… it’s a pretty priceless piece of performance art. I’m very happy to have participated in it.

Thanks for the great post, Tan. I certainly respect what you laid out, and I'm happy to hear all the details. And kudos to you for finishing! It really is quite an accomplishment no matter how you slice it.

On a separate note, I went to the Beverly Hills exhibit today and took it in. I enjoyed it a bit more than I thought I would, but after about 1/2 an hour, I was pretty much done to be honest. I went with someone who I work with (who knows Hirst's work well also) and we were the only people in the place.

I am happy to say I got a Complete Spot Challenge card... but it'll stay blank. Didn't want to take the time to register and get the one lonely stamp!