Latest news with #DamienHirst
The Independent
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Bull Burford: How a 16th-century coaching inn became the Cotswolds' hottest hotel
The warning is in plain sight on a sign outside Bull: 'a curious coaching inn'. And indeed, this is no everyday pub quietly hidden in the heart of the Cotswolds. As Alice might have noted of this new hospitality wonderland, it does actually get curiouser and curiouser the moment you step over the threshold. Don't for a minute think 'quaint', in spite of the ancient heritage, when you pull up at this pub in Burford, quite possibly the most beautiful town in the Cotswolds; this 18-room hotel turns the concept of an English pub on its head. Matthew Freud, the PR tycoon and commercial strategist turned pub landlord, adds much zen, zip and zaniness to his modern reinvention of the country pub hotel. The result is 50 shades of cosmopolitan luxury. But be warned: it's distinctly anti-loner, the kind of place where you're encouraged to integrate, not isolate; to break bread with other guests over dinner and share in new experiences. Along with the communal dining, where guests are instructed to sit together and (shock horror!) talk to one another, there's also a holistic programme offering activities including yoga, meditation, photography workshops, chess, flower picking and a book club. Mixers are not just drinks to accompany spirits, but are how Freud defines his guests. He wants them to embrace the community spirit and throw themselves into making connections over dinner. Bull also has more of a modern art gallery vibe than that of a traditional boozer, partly because Damien Hirst and Harland Miller works adorn the walls. Housed in such an old building but with such modern, on-trend interiors, it's the hotel version of a Warhol portrait in an old gilt frame. And there's no dinging brass bell or indifferent receptionist either; here you'll find Californian sunshine service with zippy friendliness. The wobbly stairs and corridors lead through a labyrinth of newly carpeted landings and corridors to the 24/7 pantry, full to bursting with gourmet goodies. This is midnight feast territory (or perfect for greedy elevenses). A tap on the state of the art fridge illuminates a light behind the glass door to show chocolate cakes and cans of drink so shiny they could be sculptures rather than thirst-quenchers. This pub may have 16th-century vernacular, with oak beams and wattled plaster, but its rooms are more Dr. No, a 21st-century Bond boozer. When Bull opened in 1536, it was a basic coaching inn, a place for tired horses to recover and prepare themselves for the next long ride. The mantra of the new Bull aspires 'to offer the same service to anyone on a journey who might need a moment to catch their breath'. This is more private home in feel than public bar. Marble mosaic tiles in the bathroom have been individually selected. Photographs in black and white of Mick Jagger and Vivienne Westwood stare out from the corridors, and equally famous living guests are not unusual either (Bob Geldoff and a slew of star actors among them). This is a deceptively spacious rural retreat; oddly Tardis-like, it makes you feel as if you're sneaking into someone's private, tycoonish home. The food, meanwhile, is simple and delicious – think Soho House chic twisted with modern Brit cuisine. Breakfast ham and eggs straight from a nearby farm sit alongside avocado mash, while staff seem more like they've been plucked from a Netflix series than catering central casting. But then again, it is all spun together by Freud, a master image maker. The laird has his own lord-of-the-manor mansion down the road. As you slope up to bed, there are dozens of slim volumes of single short stories to choose from; Sonos for your music; lemon, a sharp knife, ice and gin for that final nightcap... The only downer? You may never want to move out.
What's On
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- What's On
10 of the most unique restaurants in Dubai
Design has to work first. Form follows function, sure – but the best spaces are built to spark a mood, a memory, an emotion. Studies show that well-designed environments can boost dopamine and lower stress levels. Which is probably why some restaurants feel different the second you step in. Every element plays a part, nothing is random and everything is connected. That's where storytelling lives – in the details. Here are 10 of the most unique restaurants in Dubai where the design speaks first. Click through the gallery 3 of 12 Image: Okku website/Instagram Image: Salmon Guru website Kira A stunning Japanese-Mediterranean fine-diner with serene elegance and gold accents. The space is highlighted by gold sculptural details and a striking chandelier that serves as the centerpiece of the space. Clean lines, shrine-like seating, a sakura-lit walkway and Burj Al Arab views make the vibe calm yet upscale. The open robata kitchen adds energy by night, while neighbouring LITT spins that to nightlife. Location: KIRA, Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab Hotel, Jumeirah Street Times: Sun–Wed 12pm–1am | Thu–Sat 12pm–2am Contact: (0)4 328 1665 | @kirarestaurant Sexy Fish Dubai's Sexy Fish is an underwater-inspired art gallery thanks to Martin Brudnizki Design Studio and Damien Hirst centrepieces – think octopus sculptures, fish‑lamp ceilings, glowing mosaic floors, coral walls and Murano‑glass pillars. The vibe is high‑glam Japanese seafood with a late‑night lounge atmosphere. Location: Level 11, Innovation One, DIFC, Dubai Times: Mon–Sat 12pm–1am | Sunday 6pm–2am Contact: (0) 4 381 9000 | @sexyfishdxb Amelia Steampunk meets Art Deco high above Downtown Dubai, in a moody lounge that nods to Amelia Earhart's airborne spirit. Expect a dramatic, aviation‑inspired bar topped with a vintage propeller, high ceilings, gear‑driven depths and textured leather booths. Upstairs mezzanine dining evokes a submarine‑like vibe under custom arch ceilings and emerald accents. It's immersive storytelling through design. Location: Amelia Restaurant & Lounge, Address Sky View, Downtown Dubai Times: Daily 7pm–3pm Contact: (0) 4 328 2805 | @ Ossiano Underwater elegance in Atlantis The Palm's aquarium-adjacent dining room. Floor-to-ceiling fish tanks create a deep-sea ambience. Dark tones, soft lighting and ocean views give it a surreal, immersive vibe – like dining inside a luxurious aquatic world. Location: The Palm, Atlantis The Palm Times: Daily 6pm–12am Contact: (0)4 426 0770 | @ossianodubai Duomo Palatial Italian under a 15 m vaulted ceiling at The Dubai Edition. With yellow Chesterfields, faux cathedral façade, digital ceiling projections and intimate banquettes, it channels Milan's Duomo with Dubai's skyline. Location: Duomo, The Dubai Edition, Downtown Dubai Times: Daily 7am–11am, 12:30pm–1am Contact: (0)4 602 3399 | @duomodubai Okku A refined address for Japanese cuisine on Palm Jumeirah, blending classic sushi, sashimi, and Wagyu kushiyaki with theatrical flair. The design nods to Japan – think lantern-lit corridors, stone walls, yakisugi wood panels, 3D-printed Samurai statues, LED jellyfish art, a sleek sushi bar and lively lounge. Location: Okku, Marriott Resort, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Times: Tue, Wed–Fri 7pm–3am | Sat 1pm–6pm, 8pm–3am | Sun–Mon Closed Contact: (0)4 666 1566 | @okkudxb Zenon Located in the Kempinski Central Avenue at Address Dubai Mall, Zenon is a multi-sensory Mediterranean‑Asian fusion restaurant powered by AI. Enter beneath golden anodised aluminium chain ceilings that curve across the space, shifting in the lighting as digital art screens around you react to live Dubai-based data. The holographic host, immersive LED panels, live DJs and high‑tech AV create a futuristic yet elegant setting that balances mythology-inspired sculpture with soaring tech‑driven ambience. The feel is cinematic, curated, and entirely in dialogue with flavour, form and story. Location: Zenon, Kempinski Central Avenue (Ground Level), Address Dubai Mall, Downtown Dubai Times: Daily 12pm–03am Contact: (0)4 837 7222 | @zenondubai 101 For an atmospheric dinner with a view, 101 is a clean, coastal space built over the water at One&Only The Palm. White tones, pale wood, and low-slung furniture set a calm tone for long terrace lunches, drinks at sundown, and low-lit dinners framed by the skyline. For something more intimate, book the private dining room enclosed within a curved, coral-inspired cocoon. Designed for up to 12 guests, it features customisable lighting and LED floors that ripple like water underfoot. Location: One&Only The Palm, West Crescent, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Times: Daily from 12.30pm–1am Contact: (0)50 332 6832 | @101_dxb Salmon Guru Neon lightning bolts, comic-style signs on walls, and a vibrant, colourful ceiling make this Business Bay bar feel like a pop-art dream. It's playful, bold and energetic – and totally Instagrammable. Location: Salmon Guru, The Opus by Omniyat – 803 Al A'amal St – Business Bay – Dubai Times: Mon–Fri 12:30pm–2am | Sat–Sun 5pm–2am Contact: (0)52 814 9537 | @salmongurudubai Aelia Aelia is a modern Mediterranean restaurant on the 63rd floor of One Za'abeel, offering stunning views of Dubai's skyline. The interior combines clean lines with warm textures – textured stone walls, natural wood, and plush velvet seating in earthy tones. Large windows flood the space with light by day and frame the city lights at night. Subtle Mediterranean touches like artisan tiles and sculptural lighting add character, while mood lighting shifts to suit every moment. Location: Aelia, One Za'abeel Tower, Business Bay, Dubai Times: Daily 7am–10pm Contact: 04 666 1617 | @aeliadubai
RTÉ News
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
'Truly special' free art exhibition set for Northern Ireland
A "truly special" collection of Irish and international art will be showcased for free in Northern Ireland from next Sunday. More than 350 works by artists including Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Banksy, Julian Opie and Salvador Dali will be on display when Art and Soul returns to the Culloden Estate and Spa outside Belfast. The event will also feature a major outdoor exhibition of 90 large sculptures and installations set throughout the 12 acres of gardens overlooking Belfast Lough. More than 70 smaller, more intimate sculptures will be on display throughout the hotel interior. Art lovers can also discover works by celebrated Irish and international artists, including Ian Pollock, Eamonn Ceannt, Giacinto Bosco, Bob Quinn, Paddy Campbell, Sandra Bell and John Fitzgerald. The show is Gormleys' 13th major art and sculpture event, with the Culloden hosting the exhibition for more than a decade. Oliver Gormley said: "Art and Soul gives art lovers a unique opportunity to view these incredible works of art in the beautiful surroundings of the Culloden, the perfect setting to showcase some of the most celebrated artists of our time. "Adults and children will enjoy the event equally, and our previous events in The K Club, Russborough, and the Castlemartyr resort attracted over 10,000 visitors." Howard Hastings, chairman of the Culloden Estate and Spa, said Art and Soul brings "something truly special" to the venue. "We're thrilled to welcome guests to explore this exceptional celebration of creativity and culture in one of the most beautiful settings in Ireland," he said.
Times
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Damien Hirst and plagiarism: ‘All my ideas are stolen anyway'
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines the verb to plagiarise as follows: '1 v.t. Take and use as one's own (the thoughts, writings, inventions, etc., of another person); copy (literary work, ideas, etc.) improperly or without acknowledgement; pass off the thoughts, work, etc., of (another person) as one's own. 2 v.i. Practise or commit plagiarism.' Damien Hirst, who has been accused, not for the first time, of pinching the idea for his best work, A Thousand Years (1990) — the one with the cow's head, the maggots and the insect-o-cutor in a vitrine — from his Goldsmiths contemporary Hamad Butt, is probably used to it by now. Indeed, in 2018 he stated in a filmed interview with fellow artist Peter Blake, 'All my ideas are stolen anyway,' claiming that he was told by his tutor Michael Craig-Martin, 'Don't borrow ideas, steal them' (possibly Craig-Martin had Picasso's famous adage in mind: 'Good artists copy, great artists steal'). That, Hirst said, was when he realised 'you don't have to be original' — and Blake agreed. 'Nothing is original — it's what you do with it.' Still, Butt's Transmission, which is about to go on show at the Whitechapel Gallery in London as part of Apprehensions, the first big survey exhibition of his work, does indeed have remarkable similarities in its ideas and execution to Hirst's work. Shown at Butt's degree show, also in 1990, but developed earlier in prototype in his studio (and seen there, claimed Butt, by Hirst, who overlapped with him at Goldsmiths for two years), it was a multipart work, one element of which was Fly-Piece, a cabinet containing sugar-soaked paper inscribed with enigmatic statements, and fly pupae, which hatched, digested the paper and then died. • Damien Hirst at 60: My plan to make art for 200 years after I die It doesn't take a genius to see why Butt, who died of Aids-related complications in 1994 aged 32, felt Hirst had appropriated his work, and the critic Jean Fisher, who taught both artists, referred to Butt's 'clear influence on Hirst'. The Times approached Hirst for comment. But this is just one of many times Hirst has been accused of plagiarism, which in art is notoriously difficult to prove. In 2010 Charles Thomson, founder of the stuckists, collated a list of 15 examples for Jackdaw Magazine. Some were supported by the artists in question, such as the Los Angeles artist Lori Precious, who said she went into 'a state of shock' after seeing Hirst's butterfly works and noting their resemblance to her mandala works made of butterflies. (Hirst has never publicly acknowledged Precious's remarks, which were not made through legal representation, and told Blake that he got the idea from Victorian tea trays.) Some were Thomson's assertion, such as the similarity between Hirst's early medicine cabinet works and Joseph Cornell's 1943 sculpture Pharmacy. Hirst's press officer at the time described the article as 'poor journalism' and said they would be issuing a 'comprehensive rebuttal'. If this exists, I can't find it. John LeKay, once a good friend of Hirst's, has claimed the artist has repurposed a number of his ideas, including skulls covered in crystals, which LeKay first experimented with in 1993, and has intimated that Hirst's In the Name of the Father, 2005, which featured the corpse of a sheep splayed to resemble a crucifixion pose, was probably inspired by his own 1987 work This Is My Body, This Is My Blood, which does the same thing but without preserving it in formaldehyde. • 25 moments that made Tate Modern — seeds, spiders and sharks LeKay also claimed that Hirst got the ideas for his pickled animal works from a catalogue LeKay lent him, for the Carolina Biological Supply Company, which sold science education products (which is a perfectly reasonable and valid place to get ideas — they don't usually just come out of thin air). Hirst declined to comment on the claims. He did agree, in 2000, to pay an undisclosed sum, out of court, to two children's charities when Humbrol took umbrage at his large-scale bronze sculpture Hymn, describing it as a direct copy of the company's Young Scientist Anatomy Set, designed by Norman Emms (apparently Hirst's young son had one). Mostly, though, claims have gone unanswered. In 2017 Jason deCaires Taylor claimed there were 'striking similarities' between his underwater sculptural installations, which he has been making since 2006, and the works that made up Hirst's Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, exhibited at that year's Venice Biennale. Hirst denied that he had breached copyright and a spokeswoman said he had been interested in 'coralised' objects since the 1990s. In 2022 he exhibited a suite of paintings of cherry blossom at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, which depicted dark branches against a pale blue sky, with petals made of dots. The English artist and writer Joe Machine told a newspaper that he thought when he saw them that he was looking at his own earlier paintings. (A stretch, to be honest. Stylistically they're not particularly similar and it's not as if artists haven't been painting cherry blossoms for centuries. To me, they just look like Hirst has rather savvily combined his dot motif with a tried-and-tested subject matter to appeal to the large east Asian market.) • Read more art reviews, guides and interviews The fact is you cannot copyright an idea. It's true that Thomas Downing was doing spot paintings in the Sixties. So did John Armeleder in the Eighties. Part of the fury around Hirst's alleged appropriation of ideas is that he's made so much more money out of them than anyone else — his success has created its own market, regardless of the quality of the work, which is variable to say the least. I doubt this latest, repeated accusation will make the slightest difference to Hirst's reputation. People know what they're getting with him, and Butt's Transmission, which the Whitechapel will show with the insect component remade for the first time since his degree show (Butt reportedly destroyed Fly-Piece after Hirst's work was shown) is likely to remain a frustrating footnote in art history. And as Dominic Johnson, curator of the exhibition, carefully remarks in the catalogue: 'It's always interesting to consider how and where artists get ideas from especially when working in shared spaces or contexts (as was the case for so many of the YBAs and their peers), as there is inevitably always going to be a degree of cross-pollination — conscious or unconscious.' Still, Picasso's pithy soundbite doesn't mean that stealing makes you a great artist. Mediocre artists steal too. And maybe the suggestion that A Thousand Years, in my opinion Hirst's finest work (he made it aged 25; he's 60 now and nothing he's done since has been as good, not even the shark), was heavily reliant on someone else's idea might, on darker nights, give Hirst a moment's pause.
Telegraph
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Damien Hirst accused of plagiarism in breakthrough artwork
Damien Hirst is embroiled in a plagiarism row after being accused of stealing the idea of using live flies in his breakthrough work from a fellow artist. Hamad Butt, a classmate of Hirst at Goldsmiths university in south London, displayed Fly-Piece, consisting of live flies in a vitrine, at his degree show in June 1990. A month later, Hirst reportedly unveiled A Thousand Years, a glass case full of live flies feeding on a cow's head, which elevated him to worldwide acclaim. Butt, meanwhile, Butt died in 1994 aged 32 after developing Aids, and having failed to break through into the art world. Dominic Johnson, a curator who has overseen a new exhibition of Butt's work at the Whitechapel Gallery in east London, claimed A Thousand Years 'appears to have directly appropriated from Butt'. Mr Johnson, a professor of performance and visual culture at Queen Mary University, London, claimed Hirst 'likely encountered Butt's piece first-hand in its development' as Butt had produced a prototype in his studio in 1989. It is claimed that Hirst displayed A Thousand Years at his exhibition Gambler which opened in July 1990. Butt felt that Hirst had appropriated his idea and 'was unhappy when Hirst's sculpture received greater acclaim', Mr Johnson wrote in the exhibition's catalogue, according to The Times. 'Whether the appropriation was direct or not, Butt chose to withdraw the Fly-Piece from his subsequent installation [in November 1990],' he added. Butt's original artwork, which has since been lost, has been recreated for the exhibition. Hirst continued to produce bio-art, most notably animals preserved in formaldehyde, including a dove, a pair of calves, and a shark dissected into three pieces. He dominated the British art world for two decades and has been reported to be the world's richest artist, with an estimated net worth of more than £300 million. The Turner Prize-winning artist's career has been dogged by allegations of plagiarism. In 2010, an art magazine published an article accusing Hirst of producing 15 works 'inspired by others' including his work Pharmacy. Charles Thomson, an artist and co-founder of Stuckists, a group which campaigns against conceptual art, tallied the number of plagiarism claims relating to Hirst's work in Jackdaw magazine. In 2007, former friend John LeKay claimed Hirst's diamond skull For the Love of God was based on his own crystal skulls made in 1993 Although Hirst has faced allegations that some of his works were the ideas of others, copyright does not protect ideas, only a specific form of expression. In 2000, it was disclosed that Hirst had paid an undisclosed sum to prevent legal action for breach of copyright by designers of a toy which resembled his famous bronze sculpture, Hymn. Hirst, 60, has always denied allegations of plagiarism but admitted in a 2018 interview that 'all my ideas are stolen'.
