Six Pills – Small print

Damien Hirst’s ‘Six Pills – Small Print’ (2005) portrays six pills of different shapes, sizes and colours
sitting on sleek reflective shelves, precisely placed against a mirrored background. An inkjet print on
paper after an original painting from his ‘Fact Paintings’ series, the present work eloquently
condenses Hirst’s perennial fascinations for colour, death and religion into a single image.

Hirst’s ‘Fact Paintings’, produced between 2003 and 2005, were hand painted after photographs of
his installations or found images, all rendered in a hyperrealist style. ‘Six Pills – Small Print’ is derived
from a photograph of one of the artist’s ‘Pill Cabinets’, sleek Minimalist‐style cabinets within which
handmade plaster pills are carefully placed. Covering the colour spectrum and precisely arranged in
a grid, Hirst’s ‘Pills Cabinets’ take from the organisation and colour relations of his ‘Spot’ paintings.

The present image, however, subtly disrupts the ‘Spot’ paintings’ mechanical logic, with each pill
taking different forms, shapes, colours and, presumably, functions. According to Hirst, medicine has
apparently replaced religion as we consistently seek to prolong life with pills. However, the chillingly
clinical nature of ‘Six Pills – Small Print’ reminds us that a cure is only an illusion, a means of delaying
the inevitability of death.