Cinchonidine
Cinchonidine is a single spot etching by Damien Hirst which saw the artist continue to develop his practice with his series of spot paintings and prints. The work, an edition of 145, created in 2016 as part of the trilogy of prints ‘Cinchonidine; Ciclopirox Olamine and Cineole’ presents a single spot at the centre comprising a series of intricate smaller greyscale-like dots of distinct and entirely different colours. On the works, Hirst explained that, “mathematically, with the spot paintings, I probably discovered the most fundamentally important thing in any kind of art. Which is the harmony of where colour can exist on its own, interacting with other colours in a perfect format.” The perfectly arranged dots, mechanically equidistant, seem to remove the concept of the hand of man creating art and pushes the concept of art created through a robotic mechanical procedure. The name of the work, ‘Cinchonidine’ itself is a reference to the antimalarial drug of the same name that creates the illusion of control, of man conquering its environment and defying the constant threat of death and decay.
Once Was What You Are, You Will Be What I Am (Skull 3)
Once Was What You Are, You Will Be What I Am is a series of 6 etchings created by Damien Hirst in 2007 with each print holding an edition of 48. In the work, we see a human skull facing the viewer surrounded by a dark, black background. Skulls, much like dots, are a central motif within the works of Hirst. Indeed, much like memento mori that follows us in our daily lives reminding us of the fleeting nature of life and the inevitability of death, skulls for Hirst have become a way to embrace and perhaps transcend death. On death, Hirst has said “You don’t like it (death), so you disguise it or you decorate it to make it look like something bearable – to such an extent that it becomes something else." The mysterious works appear menacing and aggressive as the human skull floats within a void of velvety black - an infinite space in which death so effortlessly and, sometimes, cruelly inhabits.
Last Supper (Corned Beef)
The Last Supper (Corned Beef) is an edition from a series of 13 prints by Damien Hirst entitled the Last Supper series. These huge prints were created in Coriander Studio, London and are unnumbered with no set order (Hirst’s brilliance in contrasting the regimented, pharmaceutical nature of the work with the ironic unordered series). Corned Beef, like the other works in the series, toys with the idea of humanity, food and the nature of science. In Corned Beef Hirst has taken inspiration from childhood favourite meals and derived the imagery from medical drug packaging. Nutrition and superficiality intersperse to dramatic and comedic effect as the artist brilliantly causes us to question the nature of what we value as a society and into the essence of what makes “us” us.
Sanctum (Orange Blue)
Sanctum (Orange Blue) forms part of Hirst’s Sanctum series which features six colour photogravure etchings. Typical of the thematic ideas and concepts with Hirst’s career, the works explore ideas around duality; life and death, beauty and horror, and the sacred and the macabre. Within Sanctum (Orange Blue) we seek to understand our place within the universe in relation to both the very human concept of death as well as the diametrically opposed idea of life. The work itself presents mortality and our attempt to understand death which is a central theme in his works. Like the stained glass windows of the great European gothic cathedrals, themselves a conduit to the divine and death, the work recalls towering odes to God. Of humanity itself crying out for anything that can remove the human condition and sin. In place of the figure of man is the figure of a butterfly - known for their short life spans and transformational existence. Central to the piece is the white butterfly, the only intact inset within the piece, surrounded by disembodied butterfly wings creating a kaleidoscopic effect through a beautifully vibrant use of colour that contrasts with the dark background.
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