Was at a talk on 3D last week and Marc Quinn came up and I remembered I saw his exhibition when I went to Verona in Italy about two years ago. This guy is crazy, he just crosses the line and he's so cool. He creates sculptures from ice, blood and his own poop :) He made a sculpture of his head from his feaces and called it 'Shit Head' :) ....creative. He has always been interested in 'otherness', in showing bodies different from the human form.

 Allison Lapper is a british artist who was born with no arms and shortened legs. Marc Quinn was interested in disabilities but not in a pitying way. He said that old sculpture where limbs have already fallen off, like the Venus de Milo, through wear and tear of time have come to receive and unconditional acceptance of their beauty. He wanted to make equally beautiful sculptures of people who had been naturally born without limbs...what was the difference?

Another sculpture of Quinns that is exploring the 'otherness' of human bodies, is 'Kiss'. This is a sculpture of two Thalidomide victims, Mat Fraser and Catherine Long. Thalidomide was a medicine given in the 1950's to help prevent morning sickness, but it resulted in birth defects for the child. Kiss forces the viewer to face their prejudices, what is beauty? what is perfection? what do you think of illness and disability?