Damien Hirst

I can’t understand why most people believe in medicine and don’t believe in art, without questioning either.
—Damien Hirst

Gagosian is pleased to present Cathedrals Built on Sand, the largest exhibition of Damien Hirst’s Pill Cabinets to date. The presentation is realized in conjunction with Cherry Blossoms, on view from July 6, 2021, to January 2, 2022, at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris, marking Hirst’s first solo museum exhibition in France.

For this landmark sculptural series, Hirst filled wall-mounted cabinets with arrangements of pills—some real, some fabricated from resin, metal, or plaster. Intermingling art and science, the Pill Cabinets examine the limits of human belief and confront society’s faith in drugs as a panacea. The works have taken on new significance during the COVID-19 pandemic, a testament to the enduring and prescient nature of Hirst’s creations.

On view is Prototype for Lies (1998), the first work created in the series. Featuring open fiberboard shelves, the sculpture imbues the sterile grid of pills with a certain warmth. The Pill Cabinets as a whole evolved from Hirst’s earlier Medicine Cabinets, in which empty pharmaceutical packages are arranged on shelves, emulating the displays one might see at a drugstore. Clinical and pragmatic, yet inextricably linked to the human body, the Medicine Cabinets unite Hirst’s interest in post-Minimalist forms with Pop art–inspired commentary on commercial goods.