verit

Here's an incredible sculpture by Damien Hirst being erected in Devon, U.K. (Thanks again to Robert Moore for kindly sharing this). "Verity" is 65 feet tall, bronze, and stands with a raised sword, pregnant, with foetus, tissue, and bones "beneath the skin" revealed on one side of the sculpture's body. It is causing a lot of controversy of course, some locals apparently even worrying it will encourage teenage pregnancy, which I don't get at all.

What a brave, monumental sculpture! "Verity" means "Truth", and the raised sword is a gesture of power, like the sword of Kali, that cuts away what must go to reveal the truth, and to create justice. She is very pregnant, pregnant with those who are still to come. They need, especially now, protection, justice, and truth if they are going to have a future at all.

I don't understand why the artist chose to"remove the skin" on one side of the sculpture, although I think of the work of Alex and Allyson Grey, the Sacred Mirrors, in which Grey, who is an anatomical illustrator, removed the "skins" on his figures to gradually reveal the different dimensions of life, from the physical to the spiritual and esoteric bodies.

By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 08:55 EST, 8 October 2012 | UPDATED: 17:26 EST, 8 October 2012

Some call it the Angel of the West; others deride it as the Belly of the South.
But, whether they like it or loathe it, the people of Ilfracombe are now the custodians of this giant Damien Hirst sculpture – and they’ll be looking at it for the next two decades. The 25-ton bronze statue of a heavily pregnant woman holding a sword, arrived in the Devon seaside resort yesterday on a flatbed trailer.

$Dropping in: Damien Hirst's Verity bronze statue of a pregnant woman has arrived in Ilfracombe, Devon$

Dropping in: Damien Hirst's bronze statue of a pregnant woman, called Verity, has arrived in Ilfracombe, Devon

Huge: The statue is to be placed on the harbour front and stands at 20.25 metres and weighs over 25 tonnes

Huge: The statue is to be placed on the harbour front and stands at 65ft and weighs over 25 tonnes

Hundreds of residents came out to catch their first glimpse of the work, which will take more than a week to assemble and install. Fans call it a ‘modern allegory of truth and justice’, but many townsfolk say it is ‘obscene and disgusting’.

On one side the woman’s skin is peeled back, revealing her skull, muscles and foetus – bringing accusations that the work is grotesque.

Complaints: Local residents have complained about Verity, calling her obscene and could even encourage teenage pregnancy

Complaints: Some local residents are upset about Verity, calling her obscene and claiming she could encourage teenage pregnancy

Crowds: Fascinated people stand and watch as the bronze figure arrived on a huge lorry

Hirst’s 65ft statue, called Verity, has been loaned to the local authority by the artist for 20 years and will stand by the town’s pier.

Dozens wrote to the council to object, with one saying it would ‘encourage teenage pregnancies’.Another said it was ‘demeaning to women’ while a third claimed it was ‘eccentricity posturing as art’. Verity’s frame is a single piece of stainless steel.
The bronze exterior was cast in more than 40 pieces while the sword and upper arm are made from a single piece of glass fibre reinforced polymer.