Ethylamine
Ethylamine
Signed Print
Damien Hirst
29 x 43cm, Edition of 55, Woodcut, 2011
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Meaning & Analysis
Ethylamine is a woodcut print from Damien Hirst’s 40 Woodcut Spots series from 2011. The print is a landscape-oriented composition showing five rows of eight spots, every spot the same size and each a different colour. Every print in the series is unique despite their shared grid composition formula.
The cold repetition and sterile aesthetic of the 40 Woodcut Spots series is reminiscent of Hirst’s early pill cabinet works such as The Void from 2000. Both works evoke a sense of endless sameness and directly allude to the realms of medicine and science. Indeed, the chemical name of each print in this series evokes a nondescript powder or pill that is abstract in its scientific mode.
In its depiction of many spots, methodically arranged, this print appears like a packet of medical pills, further exacerbated by the print’s title. Ribonolactone is formulaic and crisp in form, evoking a lack of human or artistic touch. Indeed, for many of the spot paintings throughout his career, Hirst employed assistants to produce them. This was part of the artist’s aims towards creating works that appear to have been produced mechanically, despite the way in which these prints and paintings are painstaking and laborious to produce.
