Sculptor Marc Quinn revealed his solid gold statue of supermodel Kate moss, 34, at the British Museum today. It is featured as part of a special Statuephilia exhibit that runs from Saturday, October 4 until January 25 of next year and also includes works by Damien Hirst and Noble and Webster. The statue features Moss in a yoga pose with her legs behind her back. It’s doubtful that she’s able to contort herself so well in real life. The statue’s thong-clad crotch is tipped up as she grasps her legs and it somehow becomes just as captivating as the statue’s face, like they’re competing for your attention.
The statue, called Siren, weighs 50kg, or 110lb, and cost £1.5 million pounds to make, or $2.67 million USD by today’s conversion rates. £1 million pounds of that cost was in gold. It is the largest gold statue created since ancient Egyptian times. Earlier reports had the sculpture made of solid gold, but that’s incorrect and it’s hollow, which is why it weighs about as much as 5′ 6″ Moss. It is thought to be worth up to £10 million pounds and will be auctioned off after it’s run at the British Museum ends next year.
The artist calls Moss “the ideal beauty of the moment,” and says “The sculpture is really about whether we make images or they make us. It’s about trying to live up to impossible dreams and immortality.”
Some of the British papers are cutting out the statue’s nether region, either by showing a sideview or just the top of the statue. You really don’t get an idea of what it looks like without that key part.
Details from Telegraph and Times Online.
Photo Credit: WENN
I think the statue weighs more that Kate did at the peak of her waif-like career…
What part of that hideous thing is supposed to resemble Kate Moss?
First the sculptor is an imbecile. 2nd, the sculpture itself isn’t that great. 3rd, this is as relevant as toilet paper.
Love Kate, love most of Quinn’s work but this is just ugly.
Mr. T, with all due respect, I find toilet paper to be very relevant! I pity the fool who doesn’t appreciate his toilet paper!
Ugh, just a no talent sensationalist who wants more fame than being an artist can usually get you.
it’s kind of gross…
What a supreme waste of gold. Is this the same clown that did the statue of her doing a backbend? This is not about any of the crap he said, this is about his sole obsession with Kate Moss. What a tool.
Wow, that’s kind of tasteless… 😐
“I pity the fool who doesn’t appreciate his toilet paper!”
I can’t explain it, but that cracked me the eff up. I am SO going to try and work that sentence into daily conversation 😈
Looks more like Alanis Morrisette.
This would look sensational in the middle of my tomato garden. 😛
KERRI: £10 million is chump change. I say go for it!
Codzilla: I have excellent credit. I’m sure a bank wouldn’t hesitate to give me a loan to decorate my tomato garden. 😕
In America, there would be a large group of people demanding that the NEA fund that nasty thing.
It’s not pretty. It’s not thought-provoking. It doesn’t look like Kate Moss. It’s offensive to Hindus because of its perverse resemblance to some of their icons of deity. It’s trash…simple trash. But…I’m sure there are a whole slew of people with lots more money and a much more enlightened world view who will find something profound about it.
ew.
he could have sculpt this one with doodoo cause it’s a piece of s***t. Sorry guys, but there are far more deserving women to inmortlize in gold out there. Plus, doesn’t this guy know people are dying of hunger in Africa, Latin America, UK, the US? It’s so sad to see all that money going to waste in an ugly sculpture of a less than exemplary mom.
Go KERRI! LOL.
Okay, I am not a fan of the statue but seriously, does EVERYTHING have to become about there being war and famine in the world?
So artists should stop making art b/c of that? Should we stop making movies and tv shows and reading and writing books b/c of war and famine?
Do you give every cent of your spare money to support the hungry? Do you wear only used clothes until they wear out? Do you live in a shack so you can spend all your money on hungry people?
Otherwise, yes, this is stupid as art, in my opinion, but not everything is about people going hungry…right or wrong other people continue to live their lives. And that includes making art (or “art”) and spending money and generally doing things that will not solve world hunger.
what is strange is that if this carries a meaning at all – it’s surely that we invest too much money and value in superficial celebrity. and yet some rich shmuck will actually lay down the 10 million pounds so that he can display it in his house – oh the irony.
that is one slutty looking statue.
With the economy as bad as it is in the U.K. too, what a vulgar and ridiculous waste of money. Kate Moss has probably sniffed or injected that much money in drugs over the years. Why honor her skinny, chain smoking, druggie ass anyway. She’s just an aging model.
I am in love with KATE as the MOST of all models. But the sculpt doesn`t represent to her. Would anybody buy it and donate the gold to a charity house? That is worthest thing to do.