This early work by Damien Hirst is representative of the artist’s well-known series Medicine Cabinets. In Still, a glimmering glass display case is lined with equally reflective medical devices and surgical equipment, neatly arranged side by side. The orderliness of this collection of pristine
objects plays on our fears of and fascination with modern medicine: the sculpture was specifically inspired by David Cronenberg’s 1988 film Dead Ringers, a psychological thriller about twin doctors. While Hirst’s practice has been described as sensationalist, he identifies himself as a “realist.” In 1996 he explained, “I have always been after a kind of realism. I didn’t want a painting of something. I wanted the thing itself.”
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
Glass, stainless steel, steel, nickel, brass, rubber, and medical, surgical, and laboratory equipment
Dimensions
195.6 × 251.5 × 50.8 cm (77 × 99 × 20 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Edlis Neeson Collection
Reference Number
2015.142
Extended information about this artwork
Material: Journal of Contemporary Art 26 (1995), n.p. (ill.).
Robert Chalmers, “Dissecting Damien” Observer Life (May 20, 1995), 14 (color ill.).
Sarah Kent, “Art: Preview - Damien Hirst” Time Out (May 1995), n.p. (ill.).
Stuart Morgan, Damien Hirst: No Sense of Absolute Corruption, exh. cat. (New York: Gagosian Gallery, 1996), 60, 61 (color ill.), 62, 63 (detail, color ill.).
Burkhard Riemschneider and Uta Grosenick, ed. Art at the Turn of the Millennium (New York: Taschen, 1999), 227 (color ill.).
Angelika Taschen, ed., Aesthetic Surgery (New York: Taschen, 2005), 352–352, fig. 52 (color ill.).
Damien Hirst, I want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone, one to one, always, forever, now (New York: Monacelli Press, 1997), 94, 95 (color ill.).
Honey Luard, White Cube: 44 Duke Street, St. James’s London, vol. I (Gottingen: Steidl, 2002), n.p. (color ill.).
Liam Gillick, White Cube: 44 Duke Street, St. James’s London, vol. II (Gottingen: Steidl, 2002), 124, 125 (color ill.).
James Rondeau, Edlis/Neeson Collection: The Art Institute of Chicago, (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press), 72, 73, pl.29, 110, 113, n. 38, 131.
London, White Cube, Damien Hirst: Still, May 19–July 1, 1995, no cat.
Monte Carlo, Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, Damien Hirst: Cornucopia, Apr. 1–Sept. 30, 2010, no cat. no.
The artist; sold through White Cube, London to Stefan Edlis, May 18, 1995 [copy of invoice in curatorial object file]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, Apr. 21, 2015.
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