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Pharmaceuticals-Damien Hirst-1

Pharmaceuticals draws inspiration from Hirst's 2004 New York exhibition "The Elusive Truth", which focused on larger-than-life, hand painted tablets, which were meticulously showcased and ordered in a cold-lit window. The sterile, stainless steel wall-mounted medicine cabinet appears almost as an altar. Praising modern pharmaceuticals and highlighting society's obsession with drugs, the cabinet shows how medicine and science seem to have replaced society ‘s faith in God. While Damien Hirsts’ pills and caps are colourful and alluring, the uncanniness is present. The juxtoposed symbols of toxicity and antidotes suggest human struggle between life and death, desire and fear.

“ I can’t understand why most people believe in medicine and don’t believe in art, without questioning either. „

Damien Hirst