"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida:"
2004-03-03 until 2004-05-31
Tate Britain
London, , UK United Kingdom

  Angus Fairhurst, Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas met on the Fine Art degree course at Goldsmiths College in South London in 1986, and went on to become part of the group of Young British Artists attracting widespread attention in the 1990s. They have since established international careers. While they remain close friends, this is the first time since Freeze in 1988 that they have all worked together to produce an exhibition.

The name In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is taken from the title track of an LP released in 1968 by the West Coast rock band, Iron Butterfly. The song was originally going to be called 'In the Garden of Eden'. Legend has it that the lead singer was so drunk when he first announced the song's title that one of the band members wrote down phonetically the slurred words 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'.

The title suggests an overt theme: broadly, the contemporary consequences of the original myth of falling from grace. But the exhibition also reveals the differing formal and material approaches of three artists and how they use metaphor in diverse ways. Lucas uses earthy subject matter and commonplace, throwaway items such as pizza-delivery flyers and cigarettes; Hirst constructs complex installations inside vitrines and makes paintings using butterflies and flies; and Fairhurst's material ranges from newspapers and billboards to bronze and resin.

IMAGE
This photograph was taken by Maia Norman, Damien Hirst's partner, on their farm in Devon. It features a gorilla sculpture by Angus Fairhurst which is installed on their land and has proved very intriguing to the cows.

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