Psilocybin
Psilocybin
Signed Print
Damien Hirst
Digital Print, 2013
Signed Print Edition of 100
H 60cm x W 40cm
Critical Review
Psilocybin is a digital print from 2013 by Damien Hirst that shows a large grid of colourful spots set against a white backdrop. The print is created with lenticular technology and thus the spots move from side to side as the viewer moves. Psilocybin is based on Hirst’s famous Spots paintings, a series of over 1,400 works on canvas that depict coloured dots in grid-like compositions set against white backdrops.
The Spots works are amongst Hirst’s most broadly recognised works. Stretching as far back as 1986, the Spots paintings recur thematically throughout Hirst’s career in a number of mediums and were first displayed at the landmark group show Freeze in London’s Docklands. As with other spot works on paper, Psilocybin delivers stark, cynical satire using a visual language that is, on the surface, joyous and carefree. This work also uses movement as a means to communicate its meaning.
Discussing the aesthetic of the Spots paintings, Hirst has proclaimed “I believe all painting and art should be uplifting for the viewer. I love colour. I feel it inside me. It gives me a buzz.” At his best, Hirst packs multiple layers into the seemingly simple and Psilocybin is no exception. The print recalls the absurdity of Dada and gently mocks the processes of pointillism.
