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2/3/2004

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Tate Britain, London

Angus Fairhurst, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas
Supported by Tate Members

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is a unique collaboration between three of Britain's best-known contemporary artists. Angus Fairhurst, Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas first met on the Fine Art Course at Goldsmiths College, London in 1986 and have remained close friends, influencing each other's work through a process of social interaction and intermittent collaboration. This is the first time the three have worked together to realise a full-scale exhibition installation.

The exhibition's title - a mutated reference to the biblical theme of the Garden of Eden - is taken from the 1968 recording by the psychedelic rock band Iron Butterfly. The potent story of Eden provides the setting for an exhibition which explores themes of life, love, sex, death and destruction. Works in the exhibition will include Lucas's Christ You Know It Ain't Easy 2002, a sculpture of Jesus created from cigarettes; a selection from Hirst's series of paintings in which thousands of dead flies create thickly encrusted surfaces; and Fairhurst's anthropomorphic bronze gorilla sculptures. Major new works will be created especially for the exhibition by all three artists.

While Fairhurst, Hirst and Lucas explore common themes In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida also reveals their differing formal and material approaches and use of metaphor in creating their work. This is exemplified in their most recent output. Lucas uses commonplace, throwaway items such as pizza delivery flyers and cigarettes to create unexpectedly finely-crafted objects. As well as using bronze in the gorilla sculptures, Fairhurst's work takes many forms, from drawing and collages through to text-based works. Hirst meanwhile makes increasingly complex installations using vitrines and has returned to the use of flies and butterflies in recent paintings.

Angus Fairhurst was born in Penbury, Kent in 1966. He studied at Canterbury Art College (1985-6) before moving to Goldsmiths College, from which he graduated in 1989. Fairhurst emerged as an influential figure in the group of young British artists who came to prominence in the 1990s. He has exhibited widely in group shows and was included in Apocalypse at the Royal Academy, London in 2000. Recent solo exhibitions include those at the Spacex Gallery, Exeter, UK and the Kunsthalle, St Gallen, Switzerland, both in 2001. Fairhurst lives and works in London.

Damien Hirst was born in Bristol in 1965 and graduated from Goldsmiths in 1989. In 1988 he curated the legendary Freeze exhibition in London's Docklands, which showcased his own work and that of fellow students. He was subsequently acknowledged as the leading figure in the celebrated group of British artists who emerged in the 1990s. He has gone on to exhibit across the world and was awarded the Turner Prize in 1995. His recent exhibition at White Cube London was his first solo show in Britain for eight years. He lives and works in London, Devon and Gloucestershire, England.

Sarah Lucas was born in 1962 in London, where she continues to live and work. She studied at Goldsmiths between 1984-7 and is now established as one of the most important British artists working today. Recent exhibitions include Temple of Bacchus (with Colin Lowe and Roddy Thompson) at Milton Keynes Gallery, 2003; Charlie George, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, 2002; and The Pleasure Principle at the Freud Museum, London, in 2000. Lucas exhibited in the fiftieth Venice Biennale this year.

The exhibition is curated by Gregor Muir, Kramlich Curator of Contemporary Art at Tate and
Clarrie Wallis, Curator, Tate Britain, and will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue.

Image: Photograph of Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas,
Angus Fairhurst
© Johnnie Shand-Kydd

Tate Britain, Level 2 Exhibition Galleries

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