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Damien Hirst — Lie to Me
Damien Hirst

Lie to Me

2008

Lie to Me is a quintessential Damien Hirst natural history work, predating the Triple Trouble collaboration by nearly two decades and serving as a powerful anchor piece that contextualises Hirst's contribution to the collection within his broader, decades-long investigation of life, death, and institutional power. The work encases a foetal specimen in formaldehyde solution within a glass and steel vitrine alongside surgical equipment, deploying the language of the laboratory and the museum display case to transform biological reality into aesthetic and philosophical proposition. The use of nickel, brass, stainless steel, and glass speaks to Hirst's insistence on clinical precision and the authority of science, while the formaldehyde — his most iconic material — preserves the specimen in a state of suspended, permanent display, forcing the viewer to confront mortality without the cultural buffer of metaphor. The title, Lie to Me, is provocative and self-aware: it implicates the viewer, the institution, and Hirst himself in a conspiracy of wilful self-deception, questioning whether art, medicine, or science ever tells truth or merely constructs convincing fictions. Placed within Triple Trouble, the work grounds the collaboration's energetic street-art dialogue in something older, heavier, and more morally demanding.

Medium
Glass, stainless steel, steel, nickel, brass, foetal specimen and formaldehyde solution, surgical equipment
Dimensions

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About this work

Damien Hirst, Lie to Me, 2008

Lie to Me is a quintessential Damien Hirst natural history work, predating the Triple Trouble collaboration by nearly two decades and serving as a powerful anchor piece that contextualises Hirst's contribution to the collection within his broader, decades-long investigation of life, death, and institutional power. The work encases a foetal specimen in formaldehyde solution within a glass and steel vitrine alongside surgical equipment, deploying the language of the laboratory and the museum display case to transform biological reality into aesthetic and philosophical proposition. The use of nickel, brass, stainless steel, and glass speaks to Hirst's insistence on clinical precision and the authority of science, while the formaldehyde — his most iconic material — preserves the specimen in a state of suspended, permanent display, forcing the viewer to confront mortality without the cultural buffer of metaphor. The title, Lie to Me, is provocative and self-aware: it implicates the viewer, the institution, and Hirst himself in a conspiracy of wilful self-deception, questioning whether art, medicine, or science ever tells truth or merely constructs convincing fictions. Placed within Triple Trouble, the work grounds the collaboration's energetic street-art dialogue in something older, heavier, and more morally demanding.

Medium
Glass, stainless steel, steel, nickel, brass, foetal specimen and formaldehyde solution, surgical equipment
Dimensions
136 x 102 x 24 cm
Year
2008
Seen at
HENI, London, United Kingdom

Related themes

Biological, Scientific Method, Conceptual Art, Installation Art, Controversial, Clinical Aesthetic, British Contemporary, Mortality, 2000s, Found Objects

More works by Damien Hirst

Collected by

Alex Capecelatro, Sarah Greenspan, Hamilton Selway Gallery, Brittany Laques