Verity, Ilfracombe Harbour

Backblip 15th April


I've been absent from blip for a week as we holidayed in North Devon, based in Ilfracombe. This is "Verity" by Damien Hirst which guards the harbour. Verity is 20.25m high.The statue is an anatomical cross-section, with her head and torso revealing her skull and the developing foetus inside her womb.
 
Damien Hirst descibes her as "an allegory for truth and justice" and her stance is taken from Edgar Degas’s ‘Little Dancer of Fourteen Years’ (c. 1881).
On Hirst's website it says: "Verity stands on a base of scattered legal books and holds the traditional symbols of Justice – a sword and scales.

"Representing truth, her scales are hidden and off-balance behind her back, whilst her sword is held confidently in her upstretched arm".
Apparently she is very "marmite" you either love her or hate her. We loved her.