OC Concept store on Madison Avenue is a respected name in the field of luxury products. They have carved a niche for themselves for presenting intriguing art. They recently unveiled the latest work by artist Michael Benisty under the title ‘Die to Live’. It was the US debut of the exhibition which runs through October 28 to November 14. The highlight of the collection of work presented for viewing is an unusual skull sculpture that stands at eight feet tall. The unique art work has been created in collaboration with Swarovski Crystals.
The skull structure has been cast in steel and encrusted with more than 345,000 Golden-Black SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS. The art work that weighs 1100 lbs took over a year to build. The Belgian-born artist Michael Benisty had photographed Nadja Swarovski for Whitewall magazine while he was working on the skull and requested the crystal heiress to have a look. One look at the work in progress and she quickly decided to collaborate on the project.
After designing the skull and finalizing on the dimensions, the artist had first created the mold in clay and subsequently cast the grand structure in stainless steel. The cast was finally finished with a mirror polish. Hundreds of thousands of Swarovski crystals were individually encrusted with great care in a fleur-de-lis design. There have been other skulls presented as art work. Damien Hirst’s platinum and diamond skull was perhaps the most expensive at $100 million. Quinn Gregory had also embellished a skull with Swarovski crystals and sapphires. However some people have strong opinions about the trend. Do you think it is acceptable to use the skull form or an actual human skull and transform it into decorative art?
Via: hauteliving
