Chicken 1999

Curator: Damien Hirst's "Chicken" replicates the packaging for a morphine solution. It's unsettlingly sterile, don't you think? Editor: Yes, it’s quite clinical. The bold text juxtaposed with the drug information is… jarring. What statement do you think Hirst is making? Curator: Consider Hirst's broader body of work. How does this piece contribute to a conversation about the commodification of medicine, and society’s fraught relationship with health and mortality? Editor: It definitely makes you think about the power we give to pharmaceuticals, and how easily we trust these packaged solutions. Curator: Precisely! And perhaps it touches upon the ethics of pharmaceutical companies as well. It is interesting how art can be an activist tool to address these topics. Editor: I hadn't considered it that way before. Thanks for sharing that perspective!