Artist Diddo Makes Human Skull From Cocaine

DIDDO has “aroused the curiosity of creators and tastemakers, receiving requests from the likes of Sasha Baron Cohen, Kanye West and Lady Gaga.” That’s what it says on his website.He ads that he “was born on the luckiest day since the sixth century (7-7-’77).”

Diddo studied at The University of Portsmouth.

And he’s made a skull from cocaine. No, it’s not Pete Doherty’s X-Ray.
cocaine skull

The facts on his off his head skull are:

Name: ecce animal
Size: dimension 12 x 18 x 22 cm
Matter: compression molded cocaine (street sourced) and gelatin
Why?: commissioned piece

Diddo’s creation is interesting but mostly because it is utterly pointless. Damien Hirst got famous by giving dead shark a good name (The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living) and then a skull created from diamonds.

A skull created from cocaine look like something a smuggler might think up to bypass customs. Indeed, in 2011, a drug gang smuggled cocaine into Europe disguised as Manolo Blahnik shoes. They were busted. But had they only called the shoes something arty, they might have escaped.

cocaine skull 1

How was it made?

In order to prepare and analyze the purity of the accumulated ‘street’ Cocaine, I contacted pharmacists at a renowned laboratory. Below is a brief summary of the testing procedures and the lab results.

It needs testing. ‘Street Cocaine’ could be 89% Vim, 1o% Aspirin and 1% ‘dust from the dealer’s table’.

The retention time of our sample matched the Cocaine standard, albeit with  a much smaller peak. This is because the sample is diluted with so-called ‘cutting agents’. The purity of the Cocaine in percentage lies in the range of approximately 15% to 20%. Further constituent components identified included Phenacetin, Caffeine, Paracetamol and  a relative large percentage of sugars, most probably Mannitol or Inositol.

Yummy.

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