Auction (RED)
| Contributions were not limited to painted medium only or to artist for that matter. The so-called guerrilla artist Banksy donated a twisted wreckage of a London phone box. Photographer Andreas Gursky massive photo of a North Korean propaganda event. Video art pioneer Bill Viola presented work with a home theater setup of 50″ plasma TV and surround sound stereo. Works from industrial designer Marc Newson and architect Tadao Ando are in the roster too.
The project also highlighted Hirst’s talents, only as artist, but as an organizer. In between all the mediations and such, Hirst created 8 art works, the most among all the contributions, included a collaboration between himself and Banksy, a first of such for both artist. The 1 piece that stood out, however, was Where There’s A Will, There’s A Way. Constructed out of gleaming polished stainless steel and glass, the work was essentially a large medicine cabinet with pills lined up in group of 3. However, each of the pill were in fact a perfect replica of 3 AIDS/HIV drugs: Viramune, Zerit, and Epivir, painstakingly made by hand from resin, plaster, and cast metal. |
Entire 83 lots were on display at Gagosian Gallery on West 21st Street in New York City till February 13th. The next evening, February 14th (Saint Valentine’s Day), all 83 lots were on auction at Sotheby’s on Upper East Side. The atmosphere in the packed auction floor was more like a Hollywood opening night. Celebrities included REM’s Michael Stipe, actress Zhang Ziyi, music mogul Russell Simmons, supermodel Christy Turlington and husband/actor Ed Burns, actor Dennis Hopper and more. Even true royalty, Queen Noor of Jordan, appeared to exhibit her support. When the night was over, the auction took in US$ 42,584,300, a whopping US$ 9,807,000 (or 33.9%) over the highest initial estimate. As expected,4 of Hirst’s works took in the most. But of all the gains, none benefited the most from the auction than Africans currently suffering from AIDS/HIV. 100% of proceeds will be going to that fight. |