Steak and Kidney; The Last Supper

This print, Steak and Kidney, by Damien Hirst, is from a set of 13 entitled The Last Supper. The print mimics the look of pharmaceutical packaging, and imitates the graphic design, typefaces and colours of such packaging, but the scale and title have been changed; the content of the packaging announces itself as a commonplace food instead of a drug or medicine.

In this work, Hirst plays with a web of meanings. The visual joke of the unexpected content and the reference to the Last Supper open up possible readings about food, medicine and death. This series of prints is part of Hirst's ongoing exploration of our awareness of our mortality, and the complex roles played by food and medicine in our society--substances which are both used and abused, sustaining and healing, but also potentially harmful. He seems to suggest that taking medicines has become as routine and everyday as eating, but at the same time there is the implication that food itself has become an industrial product, and that even the most basic foods are stuffed with chemical compounds.

At the Last Supper Christ transformed bread and wine into His body and blood, by which they became agents of spiritual sustenance and ever-lasting life; in the Last Supper series Hirst makes claims for art itself as a source of nourishment and healing for the mind and spirit.