The Representation Of Death In Art Analysis

The representation of Death in the works of art of Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst is one of the most iconic artists well known for explicitly expressing the theme of death. He is an English artist, playing a prominent member of the group Young
British Artists (or YBA). Currently he is the richest living artist, and his wealth was valued up to £215m in 2010. This essay will tackle the works of art: The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living 1991, and A Thousand Years, 1990 and how the theme of death is expressed through these pieces.

Damien Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living 1991 which is composed with a real-life preserved Tiger shark preserved in formaldehyde.
Hirst has tackled the themes of the body, mortality, violence, pain and power. By framing a shark out of all animals, Damien has been able to portray death in an exaggerated manner. The shark is portrayed as a killer machine, an animal which symbolises fear and death. The recontextualisation of the shark is very interesting due to its appropriation of pop culture images by artists such as Andy Warhol and its dominant portrayal of the

From the moment we are born, every second, minute or hour that passes is a shorter time left to live and we come closer to death. As the maggots soon develop into flies they move to the ‘death’ part of the box starting to cultivate the cow’s head. Just as we start to live, we live every repetitively where we establish a habit to eat three meals a day and work. Soon the cycle will end by the flies either being electrically shocked by the insect catcher, or drowning in the pool of blood. Since there is no other escape route in this box, Damien has again forced upon the uncomfortable idea that death again is inevitable and there is no going around it. Damien may have added the insect catcher to express that death comes in many forms and times, however despite this fact death will be brought
upon