Shark

• Full title

  The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
• Artist + Date + Commissioner

  Damien Hirst + 1991 + Charles Saatchi
• Style 


  Conceptual art
• Purpose + Subject matter + Rejection of + Memento Mori

  • Explores idea of ‘ready-made’ as piece consists of real 13-foot tiger shark placed in glass, painted steel box, suspended in a vitrine of formaldehyde.
  • Rejects ideals used within Renaissance era and instead adopts 20

  th century theology of art that is open to interpretation.

  • Can be argued that the shark is a memento mori, reminding its audience of the inevitability of death
• Critical text

  “real enough to frighten you.” (Hirst)
• Give a composition point about arrangement/positioning + mouth

  Point: Prolong shark’s viciousness

  
  

  Reasoning: Arranged horizontally in centre of formaldehyde box & has mouth hovering wide open

  
  

  Effect (1): Further convey idea of shark moving in ocean, in pursuit of its next victim

  
  

  Effect (2): Creates unsettling atmosphere - due to its complete organicism - easily intimidated by presence - even though upholds no supremacy over humans - creating false sense of danger for perplexed viewer

  
• Give a MTP point about the industrial white lines & link to composition & format

  Point: Industrial looking white lines encase shark.

  
  

  Reasoning: Appearing to separate head, body and tail into different cubes attached together, generating three part composition (reminiscent of a triptych).

  
  

  Effect: Bring emphasis to its realism, enticing viewer to closely examine the shark, and in turn, intensifying daunting experience.

  
  

  Additional: Further conveyed through artwork’s ‘in the round’ format, as viewer is able to gaze from any angle.

  
• Give point about how they 'made' the artwork & link to nature & sublime

  Point: Title & artwork itself both draw attention to morality

  
  

  Reasoning (1): Hirst ordered fisherman to take once living/ innocent animal out of natural habitat and into cage, expressing man’s dominating power, highlighting disharmony between two species within Anthropocene Era.

  
  

  Reasoning (2): Also intensifies theory of sublime by Edmund Burke in which viewer is equally fearful and intrigued by nature’s most hostile sea predator, as its presence within our natural environment is abnormal.
• Give conclusion

  The artwork’s success can be due to these ideas embedded within the piece as it is now located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and is estimated be worth £7 million.