damien hirst gilds golden woolly mammoth skeleton

damien hirst gilds golden woolly mammoth skeleton
(above) photo by prudence cuming associates © damien hirst and science ltd.

for a major new work, damien hirst returns to his ‘natural history’ series with the reveal of ‘gone but not forgotten’, the gilded skeleton of a three-meter tall woolly mammoth, encased in a colossal steel and glass vitrine. ‘the mammoth comes from a time and place that we cannot ever fully understand. despite its scientific reality, it has attained an almost mythical status and I wanted to play with these ideas of legend, history and science by gilding the skeleton and placing it within a monolithic gold tank.’ hirst explains of the piece ‘it’s such an absolute expression of mortality, but i’ve decorated it to the point where it’s become something else, i’ve pitched everything I can against death to create something more hopeful, it is gone but not forgotten.’ the work has been donated to aid amfAR‘s work in the fight against AIDS.

‘done but not forgotten’ (detail)
photo by prudence cuming associates © damien hirst and science ltd.

the gilded skeleton of a three-meter tall woolly mammoth is encased in glass and gold
photo by prudence cuming associates © damien hirst and science ltd.

(left) detail of the gold-covered skeleton
(right) hirst and his new work
photos by prudence cuming associates © damien hirst and science ltd.