LAD culture began to seep into every corner of society; it burst onto the art scene with Damien Hirst in the 90’s. Hirst was famous for his laddish behaviour and was far from your typical artist. He was so drunk when he won the 1995 turner prize that he couldn’t remember what he had done with the £20,000 prize money.
ART.
“I was out of my mind drunk, slurring my words”
– Damien Hirst
Tracey Emin refashioned ideas of femininity through her art. She was accused of exploiting just how sordid the Great British public had become. She first burst onto the scene when she opened a shop in Bethnal Green selling her notes and ashtrays with Damien Hirst’s face at the bottom.
“My Bed” (1998) – Emin’s most famous work ‘my bed’ was inspired by a period of depression following a breakup. She didn’t leave her bed for days and kept the mess that had accumulated over the days that she spent there; the sheets were stained with an array of bodily secretions and the floor littered with condoms and dirty underwear.
“Everyone I’ve ever slept with 1963-1995”- A tent with the names of everyone she had slept with stitched into it. Not necessarily in a sexual sense, even people she had just slept next to. People were initially shocked by this as they saw it as a woman talking frankly and openly about her sexual partners.
“The Physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone living” (1992)
Damien Hirst’s half a shark submerged in a tank of formaldehyde didn’t win the turner prize but it opened the nations eyes. The masses were actually interested in what he was doing. This paved the way for his turner prize winning “mother and child divided” in 1995.
Androgyny VS LAD Culture in the 1990's