IN THE STUDIO WITH Marc Quinn

The trailblazing British artist's wide-ranging new exhibition, Light Into Life, places his biocentric work into perhaps its most ideal setting: London's Kew Gardens.

- Julie Belcove

DURING HIS PROLIFIC and inventive career, Marc Quinn has cast a self-portrait with his own frozen blood, preserved flowers in liquid silicone, and made a series of 3D works by covering images of postcard-pretty sunsets with urban detritus and mounting them on violently crumpled aluminium. The through line? Our inextricable dependence on our environment, both natural and of our own making. Or, as Quinn puts it, “what it is to be a person in the world”.

“Those frozen sculptures bring out the idea that we only exist in certain conditions—and if you change those conditions, then we cease to exist,” Quinn says over Zoom from his London studio. “The frozen head only exists because it’s minus-20 Celsius. If you unplug it, it turns to a pool of blood. The frozen flowers, they only seem to be perfect because they’re frozen. If you unplug them, they turn to mush.”

Quinn first rose to prominence more than 30 years ago as part of the boundary-pushing Young British Artists and has exhibited widely in museums, galleries and biennials. But his latest venue, London’s Kew Gardens—where Light Into Life is running until 29 September—offers what may be the ideal backdrop for his oeuvre. It’s neither wild nor a garden planted with purely aesthetic goals, but rather a carefully cultivated scientific institute.