Tag Archives: damien hirst

Celebrities visit the ‘Tunnel of Love’ with the British Heart Foundation.

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Celebrities visit the ‘Tunnel of Love’ with the British Heart Foundation…

Fashion and art come together to help mend broken hearts

Last night saw the greatest names from the worlds of fashion, art and music descend on Proud Camden in support of the British Heart Foundation’s (BHF) ‘Mending Broken Hearts Appeal’.

The BHF Tunnel of Love party is in its second year and attracted a host of high-profile faces in support of the ground-breaking appeal that aims to give hope to millions of heart patients and their families worldwide. Fashionable guests including Alexa Chung, Daisy Lowe, Laura Bailey, Cara Delevingne, Sir Peter Blake, Katie Hillier, Patrick Grant, Mollie King, Pixie Geldof, Peaches Geldof & Tom Cohen, Sir Harold Tillman, Suki Waterhouse, Alice Temperley, Clara Paget, Miles Kane, Jacqui Ainsley, Gemma Cairney, Lara Bohinc, Little Boots, Tallulah Harlech and Hilary Alexander celebrated the work of the charity at this 1920’s-themed night featuring games, such as the Radley Roulette and performances from Frisky and Mannish and live music sets from the Broken Heart DJ’s .

The evening included auctions of fashion and striking contemporary art from Damien Hirst, Sir Peter Blake, Jim Dine, Cartier, Mulberry, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s Antonio Berardi dress and Stephen Webster which raised thousands of pounds for the charity. Top British Cara Delevingne caused a bidding war during the live auction hosted by Harry Dalmeny of Sotheby’s and eventually went home with a trip to the Maldives with Soneva Fushi.

Guests were also treated to cocktails by La Maison Fontaine Absinthe and Rhum St Barth. Prosecco and wine was kindly provided by Tunnel of Love sponsors Marks & Spencer.

All of the proceeds from the Tunnel of Love party support the BHF’s Mending Broken Hearts Appeal.

At the moment, there is no cure for a broken heart. Once your heart muscle is damaged by a heart attack, it can never fully recover. But there is hope. Scientists funded by the BHF are striving to develop the technology to repair damaged heart muscle so that one day we could literally mend broken hearts within a generation. Together, we can mend broken hearts and make medical history.

Is It Art?

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Art can be controversial. With the comment ‘That’s not art’ a common thing, especially in the face of modern art. But is it a fair comment? Well, it’s a matter of taste but I now have a theory: If something makes you ask ‘Is it art?’, then it is art, because it made you ask the question, it made you think. It’s also different from saying ‘that’s NOT art’.

Modern artist don’t have to draw, paint or even (controversial thing) have talent. Sure, they will have imagination, but they can just put their unmade bed in a gallery or all the names of people they have slept with (Tracey Emin) or pickle a shark and cut it in half (Damien Hirst, incidentally worth over £100 million, financially, one of the most successful artists in history). They can take black dummies and dress them as the SS in Nazi uniforms, complete with swastikas. (Jake and Dino Chapman) I remember watching a documentary on the Chapman brothers a few years ago and one of them, Jake or Dino, who knows?, walked around an art gallery and contemptuously pointed out a drawing of Will Smith that a talented artist had done, as it takes a lot of talent to draw well, and sneered ‘What is the point of that?’. Well, what wasn’t the point? It was someone drawing a portrait of a famous people. That is what art mostly was for centuries. It was good and it was, without a doubt, art.

Now, although it may seem like it, I am not attacking Emin, Hirst or the Chapman’s. I think they do have talent. Hirst particularly. They are different, avant garde. But can you be an artist without the talent to draw or paint? Evidently you can. From Duchamp’s urinal to Jackson Pollack’s splatter paintings art opinion has always been divided.

But I still think it takes more than putting something in an art gallery to make it art. And more importantly, I think it takes talent to make it good, and that is what it really comes down to: good art.

Winston Churchill once said: ‘Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.’

Damien Hirst donates picture for The Warrior Programme Annual Fundraising Dinner. {Art}

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Celebrity support aids the fundraising efforts of the Warrior Programme, the charity dedicated to helping serving and ex-service men and women who have been affected by the psychological trauma of war. Damien Hirst has donated a unique proof print ‘Big Love with Diamond Dust’ to help fund the programme which has helped over 400 people get their lives back on track, since the charity launched in 2007.

Other celebrity support at the dinner includes John Boorman, Film Director and his children Charley Boorman and Katrine Boorman, John Illsley of Dire Straits,and Jeanne Marine, Bob Geldof’s partner, who will sing at the Gala Dinner tomorrow, Tuesday 30th November at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. Damien Hirst’s wife Maia Norman and his mother will be at the event. Both Jeanne and Bob attended the Gala Dinner in 2009, with other celebrities, which raised £75,000 towards The Warrior Programme’s goal of £1m before 2012. The Prince of Wales has written the Foreword to the event programme.

“Before Warrior I had two choices: one was to live; the other one to die. Now I have a hundred choices.”

Tom, Warrior Programme participant.

Picture credit:
Photographed by Prudence Cuming Associates

© Damien Hirst. All rights reserved, DACS 2010