Damien Hirst

Damien Hurst is a British artist known for doing many different types of art, he does painting and sculpture. I have looked at many different pieces of work and found that they were very questioning. I have seen his shark before in an art book and wondered why he had chosen this as his subject. The tiger shark is quite haunting to look at, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of the Living, 1991 is the name of this piece. From the side view of this picture below you can see two angles of the shark making it look two images. The shark seems so tame here as it is seen as such a predator in the wild, here the shark is not alive and just stands to be looked at. It no longer seems scary but kind of sad as the shark is no longer alive. The shark is very much feared but now everyone can see it dead. I feel a sense of safety seeing a shark like this as it doesn't move. Its trapped.
Hurst uses this in many of his art works, the glass 'cage' I mean here is another sculpture that speaks more to the modern day business world, trapped at a job you may not enjoy working behind a desk for someone else. This work shows more about the shark. He shows it in the same light. This is called The Acquired Inability to Escape. It too was created in 1991 but doesn't have the success of the work above. Here is another example of this with cows, he has used this for many including the Zebra and his Pigs, Hursts work is often related to death I have noticed.