Still

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.”