Dimensions: support: 910 x 710 mm
Copyright: © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is "I Get Around" by Damien Hirst, from the Tate Collections. It's a drawing, and the title makes me think of movement. What do you see in this piece, looking at it symbolically? Curator: The spiral is an ancient symbol, isn't it? Think of labyrinths, cycles of life, or even galaxies. Hirst uses it to represent endless repetition but also, perhaps, the human need to find a center, a meaning, within the chaos. Does the controlled spin suggest a meditative act, or a compulsive one? Editor: That's fascinating! The spiral seems simple, but it’s packed with cultural meaning. Thanks for pointing that out. Curator: Indeed. It reminds us that even seemingly simple forms carry centuries of cultural memory.
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This is one of the twenty-three etchings that comprise the first volume of two portfolios, In a Spin, the Action of the World on Things I and II. Each etching was made by the artist in London 2002, printed on 350gsm Hahnmuhle paper, proofed and editioned at Hope (Sufferance) Press, London and published by Charles Booth-Clibborn under his imprint, The Paragon Press. There are sixty-eight sets of prints, numbered 1–68 on the colophon page, and six proof copies. Tate’s copy is the second in the edition. Each set is accompanied by a colophon page and presented in a box with an original spin painting in household paint on the cover and the title and artist’s name printed on top. In addition to etchings similar to those in the first volume, the second volume of In a Spin... includes a photograph of the night sky that Hirst took using a long exposure, recording the movement of the stars in the sky caused by the earth’s rotation, and contributing to the notion expressed in the words: the Action of the World on Things. The artist first coined this phrase in 1999, when he was explaining the origin of his spot paintings (see AR00498), differentiating two strands of his work: ‘an involvement with death and decay, and ideas and life: the action of the world on things exists somewhere, and the colour exists somewhere else. And it’s fantastic.’ (Quoted in Damien Hirst and Gordon Burn, On the Way to Work, London 2001, p.119.) In the event, the imagery of In a Spin, the Action of the World on Things I and II unites these two strands.
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