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Damien Hirst

Enter the Infinite - Revelation

Enter the Infinite - Dream

Enter the Infinite - Supernatural

Enter the Infinite - Trance

Enter the Infinite - Light

Enter the Infinite - Rapture

Enter the Infinite - Being

Enter the Infinite - Ecstasy

Enter the Infinite - Glory

Enter the Infinite - Exaltation

Enter the Infinite - Prophecy

Enter the Infinite - Seeing

Transfixing, vibrant and entirely joyful, in 2016 Damien Hirst experimented with a new formulation of his ‘Spin Paintings’ series, begun in 1994,  through ‘Enter the Infinite’ (H1), which pushes the human eye to its limits. 

Composed of 12 jacquard-woven tapestries, ‘Enter the Infinite’ divides Hirst’s ‘Spin Painting’ from 2008, ‘Beautiful Flailing, Falling, Grip on Reality, Pull Yourself Together Painting’, into quarters and eighths. Began in 1994, ‘Spin Paintings’ are defined by elongated titles and characterised by bright, exploding colours. Hirst describes the works as, “childish…in the positive sense of the word”, reflecting on the unbridled playfulness inherent to their creation, and the delight in the bemusing effects of the resulting vivacious paintings. Nevertheless, the ‘Spin Paintings’ pursue in a new format the notion of the imaginary mechanical painter, famously explored in Hirst’s ‘Spot Paintings’ series. Though the product of chance, they are ultimately born out of the technology of the spin machine.  

This randomness that defines the ‘Spin Paintings’ series is accompanied in ‘Enter the Infinite’ by mathematical intervention, precisely dividing, repeating and reflecting the action. As a result, ‘Beautiful Flailing’ is converted into prismatic patterns composed of seemingly infinite planes of symmetry and orientation. The tapestries draw the eye to their central points through fields of intense motion and colour, reminiscent of the spinning technology used to produce the painting on which they are based. 
Rippling in blues, reds, yellows and greens, the tapestry takes the eye on an uneasy journey in and out of the work’s centre. The eye cannot contain the patterns of colours and the shifting perspectives of inward and outward motion, prompting a reflection on its limits and functions. The tapestries are arresting, a quality reflected in the individual titles. The ‘Enter the Infinite’ tapestries are named for, as art writer Michael Bracewell calls it, “heightened or altered consciousness, foresight, and cosmic or spiritual ecstasy: any of these terms relate to chemically induced hallucinogenic experience as much as they do to religious, meditational, philosophical, or devotional realization”. 

Indeed, in turning to tapestry, a medium with a history of grandeur, Hirst also positions his ‘Spin Paintings’ in a new light. Tapestries have adorned castles, churches and cathedrals for centuries, depicting scenes often derived from biblical narratives, mythology, history and military victories. Hirst’s ‘Enter the Infinite’ not only joins this lineage, but also infuses into the joyful ‘Spin Paintings’ series the artist’s perennial interest in the themes of belief and spectacle. 

Enter the Infinite

Transfixing, vibrant and entirely joyful, in 2016 Damien Hirst experimented with a new formulation of his ‘Spin Paintings’ series, begun in 1994, through ‘Enter the Infinite’ (H1), which pushes the human eye to its limits. Composed of 12 jacquard-woven tapestries, ‘Enter the Infinite’ is based on one of Hirst’s ‘Spin Paintings’, dividing, repeating and reflecting it to generate prismatic patterns composed of seemingly infinite planes of symmetry and orientation.

Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst

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