For the Love of Good: Resurrecting the Lost Face Behind Damien Hirst’s ‘For the Love of God’ Diamond Skull

‘For the Love of Good’ was a highly experimental 2D-craniofacial approximation of one of the world’s most expensive, infamous, and controversial contemporary artworks; namely, ‘For the Love of God’, produced by Turner Prize-winning artist, Damien Hirst (2007). The project utilised (forensic; not-for-profit; humanitarian) art as a lens through which to conceptually explore the commodification and mistreatment of human remains in Hirst’s (otherwise high-profile, for-profit, commercialized) artwork; promoting a dialogue surrounding the legalities and ethics associated with the contemporary bone and diamond trade(s), together with wider considerations for the Forensic Art, Facial Imaging, and Jewellery Manufacturing communities. In the absence of access to the original skull itself, the research methodology involved collating photographic reference material of ‘The Hirst Skull’ from secondary sources in print and online, to perform an up-to-date review of the biological assessment of the skull originally undertaken by researchers in c.2006-2007 (namely, age, sex, and ancestry determination). As far as was possible, new metric and morphological analyses were undertaken by the research team to produce a 2D craniofacial approximation of the (still unidentified) individual whose remains were used as a basis of Hirst’s artwork, with an overall intention being to restore a sense of visibility, humanity, and identity to the human-behind-the-remains.

Outputs included a 2D-craniofacial approximation, textured and animated using Adobe Photoshop; an accompanying academic report detailing a potentially new and experimental methodology for 2D craniofacial approximation (whereby access to a physical skull, 3D skull scan(s), and 2D scaled photographs were otherwise unavailable),, and conference paper presented orally at the 20th Meeting of the International Association for Craniofacial Identification (IACI) at The University of Granada, Spain (2-6 October 2024).