“It is just something precarious and unobtainable, like truth, which is floating there.”[1]
‘Loving in a World of Desire’, a work in the ‘Mental Escapology’ series, was first exhibited at, ‘No Sense of Absolute Corruption’, at Gagosian Gallery, New York in 1996. The piece is about “how love becomes problematic when faced with the corruption of the flesh and the idea of creating a world of desire that you meet in advertising – which makes things difficult.”[2]
In its geometric formula – the round ball floating above a squared base – and the seductive simplicity of its colour palette, Hirst explains, “it is a very similar thing to a spot painting. It is all about seduction, really.”[3]
[1] Damien Hirst cited in ‘An Interview with Damien Hirst’, Stuart Morgan, ‘No Sense of Absolute Corruption’ (Gagosian Gallery, 1996), 15
[2] Damien Hirst cited in ‘Interview with Carl Freedman’ ‘Minky Manky’, (South London Gallery, 1995)
[3] Damien Hirst cited in ‘Like People, Like Flies: Damien Hirst Interviewed’, Mirta D’Argenzio, ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy: Selected Works from 1989–2004’ (Electa Napoli, 2004), 160