“The Physical Impossibilities of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items recently cataloged from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection.

Damien Hirst is a world-renowned (and criticized) English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector, said to be the wealthiest living artist from the United Kingdom. In his I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, With Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now, Hirst collected depictions of his art work and displayed them alongside visual narratives of his life and process, using photographs, graphic images, pop-ups, and other 3D elements to create an interactive experience.

Arguably Hirst’s most famous work is the 1991 The Physical Impossibilities of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, in which a 14-foot tiger shark was suspended in a glass tank full of formaldehyde. Part of a series entitled Natural History, which depicted a variety of animals in preserved in formaldehyde, Physical Impossibilities has drawn the most interest and criticism. In 1993, the original shark had to be replaced due to an imperfect preservation process, leading to the decay of the body. Both sharks used in the artwork were caught soley for the purpose of the project. See the piece in action below:

To learn more and see physical copies of I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, With Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now can be found in the Fine Arts Library collection: New York: Monacelli Press, [1997].

Thanks to Irina Rogova, Santo Domingo Library Assistant, for contributing this post.