Sophie Calle - Exquisite Pain

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This painting is in the tradition of Titian’s Poesies, the mythological paintings he did towards the end of his life. However, it is very different from the paintings that he did for Phillip of Spain, which I discussed in my previous post. Marsyas is a much darker picture, and it shows the satyr Marsyas being flayed alive by the God Apollo. According to the myth, Marsyas had the hubris to challenge Apollo, who was God of music as well as many other things. Apollo was particularly offended. Archbishopric Castle Kroměříž Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaying_of_Marsyas_(Titian) What is the connexion between Titian and Damien Hirst here? Well one of Titian’s most fascinating paintings, which was not part of the ‘Titian: Love Desire And Death’ exhibition, is Titian’s Flaying Of Marsyas, which is in the collection at Museum Kroměříž, Archbishopric Castle Kroměříž in Czechia. Yet skin was often a magic ingredient, and so it’s not wholly outrageous to wonder whether or not there’s something esoteric about the familiar image of Bartholomew: the living man standing with all of his muscles and viscera exposed, holding his skin. If we want to read it as symbolic, we could say that the skin simply represents the outer part of the person; once you remove that and you expose yourself entirely to God (or to oneself), then certainly change takes place. I decided to continue… until I had got over my pain by comparing it with other people’s, or had worn out my own story through sheer repetition” In 1984 I was awarded a grant to go to Japan for three months. I left on October 25, not knowing that this date marked the beginning of a 92-day countdown to the end of a love affair—nothing unusual, but for me then the unhappiest moment of my whole life.

the apocryphal literature involving Bartholomew is highly peculiar: one episode consists of the apostle learning secret cosmic knowledge from Mary the mother of Jesus, despite her warning that to disclose this information will destroy the world; another work, attributed to Bartholomew, has Jesus battling the six serpent sons of Death; another, The Acts of Philip, in which Bartholomew co-stars, features the apostles coming across a talking baby goat and leopard, who adorably take Communion together; yet another appears to involve, of all things, a werewolf.” [1] Saint Bartholomew the GreatA man and a woman tell stories of ordinary and not-so-ordinary heart-break, each story accompanied by a single iconic image. A red telephone on a hotel bed. A subway station. The view from a window. A green Mercedes.

St Bartholomew, one of the original twelve disciples, was sent as an Apostle to Armenia, where he was killed by being skinned alive. The classic iconography of the saint sees him naked, his muscles exposed, his skin hanging over his arm – and in his hands, the instruments of his torture. This statue sees Damien Hirst conform to this imagery, but give it a unique twist: the instrument in his hand is not a standard knife, but a scalpel, used in the hospital across the road which also bears the saint’s name.The woman repeatedly recounts the story of the end of an affair; each time remembering it differ­ently, adding and subtracting details, finding new ways to both remember and forget what happened. The man tells stories from many different people; each a snapshot of sorrow, big or small, that takes its place in a growing catalogue of suffering, break-ups, humiliations, deaths, bad dentistry and love letters that never arrive.