Mushroom
Mushroom
Signed Print
Damien Hirst
153 x 102cm, Edition of 150, Screenprint, 1999
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Meaning & Analysis
Mushroom is a screen print by Damien Hirst which was released as part of his The Last Supper series. Released in an edition of 150, this print is one of thirteen in the series which imitates pharmaceutical packaging through a limited colour palette. 'Mushroom' acts as as the medicine name and Hirst replaces the manufacturers name with his own, however some pharmaceutical descriptions and measurements remain, sitting awkwardly alongside other food related words such as ‘PIE’.
In this series Hirst takes everyday, cafeteria foods and holds them up to Christian faith and the perceived glamour of pharmaceuticals. He shows us how these medicines have become commonplace, their packaging familiar and the contents trusted. For Hirst our relationship with medicine is a belief system, very much like art or religion.
Pharmaceutical imagery, glamour and idolisation can be found early in the artist’s career in his Medicine Cabinet series. Empty medicine packaging is displayed in cabinets under titles including ‘Holidays’, ‘New York’ and ‘God’. Later, he uses similar cabinets to display brightly coloured pills and cubic zirconia.
Hirst’s ongoing questioning of human faith can be found again and again throughout his work. Signed and unnumbered (as is true of all prints in the series) this print can be considered an important piece within the artist’s catalogue raisonné.
