'For the Love of God'

I've always enjoyed the macabre quality of Damien Hirst's art...a shark in formaldehyde, a bisected cow, hundreds of butterflies caught on the brightly colored canvas of a painting. His latest work is a life-sized human skull encased in diamonds and entitled "For the Love of God"...it's at once both a chance for us to look at our own mortality and an indictment of the consumerist society we live in...in his hands death has gained such a luxurious, decadent quality. Personally I love it, as Hirst himself said "I just want to celebrate life by saying to hell with death."