Hiroki on Damien

My stay in London coincided by chance with the release of a famous artist's latest work: a skull covered in diamonds.

I'm not sure what the true intention of the artist's message was, but I sensed an irony connected to the abundance of money in the world and global agreement of what "valuable" is.

Everyday, crowds of people would line up outside the White Cube Gallery to catch a glimpse, and it seemed that this piece, valued in the tens of millions of punds, was sending a strong message that mocked the ideals of market fundamentalism. The excitement on London over the skull's universally perceived value made me feel uneasy.

In 2008, our global financial system and perception of value it created, experienced a massive and undeniable collapse. Has the global trend of financial and monetary motivation and our so-called "universal perception of value" reached a deadlock?

Hiroki Nakamura is the man behind Visvim.

Damien Hirst is the richest artist alive in a world that puts artistic value on dead animals in formaldehyde.