Damien Hirst – The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.
1991
2170 x 5420 x 1800 mm | 85.5 x 213.4 x 70.9 in
Glass, painted steel, silicone, monofilament, shark and formaldehyde solution
Formaldehyde
Image: Photographed by Prudence Cuming Associates © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012
My first reaction to seeing this piece of art was ‘Wow, that’s a cool piece of taxidermy.’ I’ve seen taxidermy before, but not with actual pieces of meat encased in a formaldehyde solution, to preserve it, only in a science lab. Then of course my mind starts to wonder, how long will it last, keep for, before it starts to decompose? What will it smell like if it gets to that stage? Obviously, this is a natural process for me, logical first, then illogical.
I read the title of the Art and then start a different thought pattern, ‘what was the artist trying to do here, or say?’ When I now look at this shark, I see fear, not only do I not like water, but the things hidden beneath it scare me unless I can seem the. Crocodiles, sharks are natural predators and are quick and cunning when they attack, sometimes you don’t even know it’s happened, until it’s too late.
This is a Conceptual and Physical piece of work. What is it about this Artist Concept, can we preserve life? Can we halt the decomposer enough for us to question life’s existence? What are out last thoughts alive if faced with death? Does the shark represent death, or fear?
I feel Hirst is trying to get the viewer to face their fears, whatever shape that fear may come in, face it head on, see it coming and then ask yourself is it impossible to feel what death might be like whilst living? Can we live after death? Are we immortal?
This piece is certainly a talking point as Duchamp said “A work of Art is completed by a Viewer.”
Artists will always experiment, will always push the boundaries, like Da Vince, a scientist and an artist, the quest to trace the human form in its fullness led him to experiment with human bodies, creating drawings that are still used today. Medicine would not exist for the mere quest to prolong life and keep the human alive for as long as possible. Experimentation is the form of progression, we learn from our mistakes and change the method to ensure it doesn’t happen again, well we try at least to do this. Egyptians used mummification to try halt the process of nature, to some extent it worked, but there is still no halt on nature, ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust.’
Throughout life Artists have been mystified by death, in every form, the story of Christ, arising after three days, The Renaissance period, the Nature Morte, even in today’s society, we hunt and kill and then try preserve what we killed, suspending it’s morality in time. We seem as humans obsessed with life and death, fear of death and sometimes fear of living. We want art today to be open to interpretation allowing us to decide our own ideas of what art is.
‘The Impermanence of Art – art has tried to transcend human death, the philosophical definitions of what a work of art is, is something that outlives us. That is transgenerational.’
Today in the art world, nothing is off limits, what the artist creates and shows, now leaves you the viewer asking some profound questions about, whether or not it is ‘silly’ or ‘unique?’
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