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Damien Hirst & Invader — Susie Trash

Susie Trash

2025

Susie Trash continues the audacious material language established in this Hirst-Invader pairing, using the literal contents of an ashtray as its primary medium to blur the line between refuse and relic. Hirst's conceptual lineage — from animals in formaldehyde to pharmaceutical spot paintings — finds a gritty, street-level counterpart here, as the discarded becomes deliberate and the mundane becomes monumental. The acrylic and paint serve as both binder and backdrop, giving the ash and cigarette remnants a formal structure that echoes Invader's grid-based, tile-like compositions drawn from 8-bit video game culture. The name 'Susie Trash' personifies the medium itself, anthropomorphizing waste in a way that challenges the viewer's perception of beauty, identity, and value. This work speaks to a shared ethos between Hirst and Invader: that culture's overlooked margins — whether back-alley walls or overflowing ashtrays — hold as much artistic validity as any museum-sanctioned material.

Medium
Contents of ashtray on canvas, acrylic and paint
Dimensions

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About this work

Damien Hirst & Invader, Susie Trash, 2025

Susie Trash continues the audacious material language established in this Hirst-Invader pairing, using the literal contents of an ashtray as its primary medium to blur the line between refuse and relic. Hirst's conceptual lineage — from animals in formaldehyde to pharmaceutical spot paintings — finds a gritty, street-level counterpart here, as the discarded becomes deliberate and the mundane becomes monumental. The acrylic and paint serve as both binder and backdrop, giving the ash and cigarette remnants a formal structure that echoes Invader's grid-based, tile-like compositions drawn from 8-bit video game culture. The name 'Susie Trash' personifies the medium itself, anthropomorphizing waste in a way that challenges the viewer's perception of beauty, identity, and value. This work speaks to a shared ethos between Hirst and Invader: that culture's overlooked margins — whether back-alley walls or overflowing ashtrays — hold as much artistic validity as any museum-sanctioned material.

Medium
Contents of ashtray on canvas, acrylic and paint
Dimensions
41.8 x 31.8 cm
Year
2025
Seen at
HENI, London, United Kingdom

Related themes

Dark, Assemblage, Transgressive, Conceptual, Mixed Media, Collaborative, Irreverent, British, Found Objects, Contemporary

More works by Damien Hirst

Collected by

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