Lies

“I chose the size and shape of the cabinet like a body. I wanted it to be kind of human, like with an abdomen and a chest and guts. There was something human about that shape and size when I made it with a smaller bit at the top like a head. So we did that first of all. Then I played around with the idea of putting the drugs for your head at the top and those for your feet at the bottom and doing something like that. I started trying to find out what all the drugs were. In the end., coming from that background of colour arranging, I can’t resist doing it in terms of colour. Everything is done in terms of colour and what it looks like. The whole cabinet really is just an illusion, just to hide behind the fact of making those old fashioned decision I think.” – Damien Hirst, “Pharmaceutical Heaven,” Damien Hirst, exh. cat. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, 2004, 105-106.