Attack

Attack is one of twelve prints that compose Hirst’s Eat the Rich series. In this series, Hirst challenges the distinction between art and science by creating art out of pharmaceutical products. Each print in the series depicts a tablet packet and the prints are all inspired by the minimalist designs of pharmaceutical packaging. The influence of conceptual sculptors such as Sol Le Witt and Donald Judd can be seen in the minimalist design of the packaging that Hirst creates. Interestingly, the names of the fictional pharmaceutical products Hirst create all carry connotations of violence or aggression. As well as bringing art and science, two disciplines that tend to clash with one another, into close contact in this series, the violent product names also jar with the healing nature of medicine.

Attack and the other prints in the Eat the Rich are not the only works by Hirst which explore modern medicine. Hirst has been interested in the aesthetics of pharmaceutical packaging since the start of his artistic career. While studying Fine Arts at Goldsmiths college in London, the artist produced an installation of medicine cabinets, which is now referred to as the Medicine Cabinet series. Eat the Rich follows naturally from the Medicine Cabinet series, exploring similar themes such as life and death, medicine and myth.