Sharpening the Pencils

Ashley Burgess
g07b1633
Word Count: 1574 words


At the time when the British would traditionally be having their ‘tea’ time, Cartrain had just entered the Modern Tate Museum in London and committed an act of robbery. Thursday the 2nd of July 2009 saw the re-ignition of a feud between the somewhat unknown graffiti artist and Damien Hirst, who needs no further introduction. Cartrain, as he calls himself, stole a box of pencils from Damien Hirst’s installation, titled Pharmacy. Without the internet and the use of Web 2.0 this feud would not be as publicised as it has been. This paper shall seek to explore the very current and ongoing feud between Damien Hirst and Cartrain but more importantly this paper will analyse three different blogs which comment on the issue.

The World Wide Web has enabled an ordinary pleb, like myself, to have access to an ongoing infinity of information. Thirty years ago, you would not have had a mass of people networking over a program like Facebook, or even have considered watching unknown people’s home videos on YouTube. In conjunction with this theme, without the internet there would be no feud between Damien Hirst and Cartrain. Without the internet, the World would not even know who Cartrain is.

With the introduction of Web 2.0, the concept of social networking became a reality. Web 2.0 allows users to have a more ‘social’ connection with peer users on a shared site. Websites such as Facebook and YouTube are prime examples of Web 2.0. With Web 2.0, users can freely communicate with each other as well being able to create a site which reflects the personality they want to portray. The best example of Web 2.0 would be what’s referred to as ‘blogging’. The Online Oxford English Dictionary states that blogging is ‘the activity of writing or maintaining a weblog’. In a nutshell that is what it is but the definition does not do justice to what blogging allows people to do. With blogging and social networks the way the world does business has been completely restructured. Think about it, with the internet you can correspond with someone anywhere else in the world. The possibilities are endless, and this has been recognised by many artists and art opportunists. Cartrain is an artist who until two months ago was generally unknown. With the use of the internet and the media, the whole feud between the two artists has been globally publicised. More notable would be that when the feud began, Cartrain very smartly created his own personal website called the Cartrain Forum – Cartrain v Damien Hirst, which allows an arena for people to discuss what is happening in conjunction with the two artists. The most laughable thing of all is that it is hosted by a free website. So it literally cost him nothing … for so much fame and global exposure.

The seventeen year old artist can owe his public rise to the fame of his public ‘enemy’ Damien Hirst. Hirst is reported to be the wealthiest artist to have lived and holds the record for the highest artwork ever sold. Hirst’s diamond encrusted skull, titled, For the Love of God, which personally cost him fourteen million pounds was sold at auction for fifty million pounds. With access to the internet Cartrain, a graffiti artist, printed images of the diamond encrusted skull. He collaged these into several images. One of the images included the image of the skull with a phone to its ear. Underneath the skull there are dollar notes coming out from it. Cartrain stated in a live interview with an American radio station that he believed that the portrayal of the ‘conceptual’ artist Damien Hirst is representative and ‘sums him up’, as he gets rich whilst people create his works of art. After the altered images, which remind one of Marcel Duchamp’s LHOOQ, were released onto the internet, Cartrain’s Gallery, 100artworks.com, were ordered to remove them, which they did. Hirst also demanded that Cartrain hand back all of the original artworks as well as the 195 pounds he had made as profit. The teenager handed back what was asked for and everything was dormant for a few months. Then at the beginning of July, Cartrain stole the box of Fabre Castle pencils from the Modern Tate Museum in London. The extremely rare and valuable pencils are said to be worth half a million pounds. Since then Cartrain has been arrested and is out on bail. For a spectator this situation seems quite humorous. Cartrain has calmly stated that he will return the pencils only if Hirst will return his artworks back to him or else he states that ‘the pencils will be sharpened’.

Madam Miaow Says is a blog whose main contributor is Madam Miaow herself. She prides herself on being a “poet, writer, broadcaster and all round trouble-maker” as is stated on the blogs website. Her entry titled Cartrain Nicks Damien Hirst's Pencils: Millionaire Artist in a Huff was posted on the 5th of September 2009. She explains the story and ends off with a comment on whether or not this whole saga is a publicity stunt or a real feud between a man and a child. Her blog is very interesting and she has been nominated for several blogging awards. Her archives date back several years and she also covers political issues which have earned her much acclaim. The content of the article is interesting with a lot facts that have been included. As a blogger she successfully portrays a character with the use of her dramatic profile picture and name. Overall her blog is highly impressive and offers valuable insight into the battle of Hirst versus Cartrain.

The South African Art Times is an online website which comments on the local and international art scene. It is blog-like yet differs to the other two which make up the trio being examined. On the 18th of September 2009, an article was added titled Damien Gets Blunt. This piece is a lot briefer than the former article yet it similarly outlines the on goings of the situation between Hirst and Cartrain, yet the authors dislike for Damien Hirst is made apparent. The article begins with the statement “with all the antics associated with contemporary art it is surprising when a top artist can’t take a bit of his own medicine” and ends with “What this drama reveals is the ugly side of success. Is it that Hirst can’t take looking at himself in the mirror, not fully comprehending what he has become?”.

Ironically, having praised the internet for the ability to access information, it has been impossible to find an art blog based in Africa that has commented on the recent feud between the two artists. It would have been highly interesting to have read another blog from Africa, but it is interesting in its own right that there are no African based blogs which are easily accessible that speak on the matter. In lieu of this another blog shall be looked at.

The final art blog under examination is called Fred Hatman. Fred Hatman is a born South African who describes himself as having been ‘diagnosed as SA-positive’. His blog is the most entertaining out of the three being examined in this paper. It is not as factual or as ‘orderly’ as the previous two blogs. His style of writing is not one that is commonly acknowledged. On September 14, Fred Hatman posted an article on his blog titled Damien Hirst: when fart (almost) initiates life. He opens this brief article with stating that he loves ‘the pretentious art world spats almost as much as [he] love watching the fashion world frothing at its collectively far-too-carefully-lipsticked mouth over a slightly-heavier-than-absurdly-underweight model named Lizzie Miller.’ As one can see his style of writing is rather humorous. Hatman carries onto describe Cartrain as a ‘snotty nosed graffiti artist’ who needs ‘parental guidance’ and whose name he cannot remember. Hatman’s description of Hirst is more entertaining describing him as “I’m-so-artistic-I-should-squeeze-myself-into-a-septic-tank-filled-with-formaldehyde-and-slowly-die”. His blog is not mainly based on art news but also covers extremely random stories such as the mother who takes her octuplets to the park and then concludes by telling his readers not to try this at home. In lieu of the whole saga that is under focus with regards to Hirst and Cartrain, this blog is highly original and hilarious.


The use of art blogs, let alone blogs, can be considered empirical to the future development of the art world. Many people have opened up their own online ‘galleries’ in the form of a webpage, which offers its creator the chance to create a ‘space’. This is not a literal area of space but rather a virtual space, one where they can exhibit their own works in a space that they have designed. In reality it just adds a whole new dimension to art. With the internet, images of artworks are often displayed out of their context therefore challenging artists to create artworks that work in the virtual world. Excitingly art blogs allow people who are not artistically trained to comment and become involved in the art world allowing more ‘space’ for freedom of expression in a world of art which is traditionally elitist. By having had examined the three blogs; Madam Miaow Says, The South African Art Times and Fred Hatman, the diversity which comes with blogging has been showed through the use of the feud between Damien Hirst and Cartrain.