Finding Meaning

or
Applying the Critical Analysis
Model to Works of Art
Description: start with the citation lines
• Artist
• Nationality
• Title
• Form
• Size
• Materials/ Media
• What can you
see?

Hirst, Damien (British, born 1965), The Physical Impossibility of Death in

the Mind of Someone Living 1991. Tiger shark, formaldehyde solution in glass
and steel cabinet 4.5 x 1.5 x 1.5m. The Saatchi Gallery, London
 Much of the information required for the description will be contained in
the citation lines:
Artist’s name
Artist’s nationality

Hirst, Damien (British, born 1965)

Title The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind
of Someone Living 1991 Size
Tiger shark, formaldehyde solution in glass and
Materials steel cabinet 4.5 x 1.5 x 1.5m
Who owns the work
The Saatchi Gallery, London
or where it is kept
• Start with the citation lines and describe what you can see in the work
• Begin to describe and list the formal qualities.
• What do these formal qualities do in the artwork? Why has the artist
used them?
SUMMARY OF CITATION LINES: Damien Hirst, a British
artist, created this sculpture-in-the-round in 1991. The work
is life-sized and presented in the Saatchi Gallery in a large
museum-style aquarium tank. The obscure title The Physical
Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living raises
many questions, typical of a postmodern work.
 Questions raised by the work:
• Is this art?
• What makes it so or not?
• What form is it?
• Is it sculpture, installation or something else?
• What is the significance of the title?
• How does the title relate to the work?
• What does the work communicate about:
• Death and decay;
• The relationships between animals and humans;
• Museums;
• The relationship between museums and artworks and artists;
• Our uncertainty about the nature and essence and role of art in Postmodern society.
• How should we respond to the work?
SIZE AND SCALE: 4.5M X 1.4M X ART FORM: Sculpture. It is a 3D MATERIALS USED: A glass and steel cabinet, a
1.5M. form that can be seen from all sides preserved, dead tiger shark suspended in
This is a large artwork. The shark is life- and walked around formaldehyde. It looks like it could have come
size, at least 3m long. A human viewer from a museum.
Sculpture-in-the-round means that
would be smaller than the shark the viewer can walk all around the The cabinet serves a number of different
The life size of the shark as well as its shark and view it from all sides, not purposes. Cabinets like these are used in
obvious authenticity – it is clearly a real just from one angle. This allows the museums to house dead animals – and indeed
shark- means that the viewers are viewer to observe all aspects of the that is exactly its purpose here. This leads to the
continually comparing themselves with shark, including the skin, gills, eyes question “why is it in an art gallery?” The
it. The shark, a dangerous predator, is and teeth. The animal has been posed cabinet also completely separates the space of the
much larger than the viewer. Hirst with its mouth open, all the rows of shark from the space of the viewer. We know that
desired to have a specimen “big enough teeth are clearly visible. This again the shark is dead and we can get up very close
to eat you” (Balasz Takac, 2019, para 2) emphasises the predatory nature of and inspect it – not possible in real life.
the shark.

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 COLOUR: The blue-green of the LINE: The strong white, clinical
formaldehyde is similar to that of geometric horizontals and verticals of
the ocean – the same colour as the the cabinet provide a definite
environment of the shark delineation between the space of the
shark and the space of the viewer
The chemical colour imitates the
aquatic environment of the shark. These lines also provide a geometric
This contributes further to the contrast to the otherwise organic nature
separation between the shark and of the artwork
the viewer. It seems that the shark is
in it’s usual surroundings – the
TEXTURE: The viewer can come close
ocean. The viewer is in their usual
enough to observe the texture of the
surroundings, that is, the gallery,
shark’s skin, gills and teeth. Even in the
breathing air
preservative the shark’s skin is flaking
off and falling on the floor of the
cabinet, to the extent that it (the shark)
had to be replaced in 2006 (Balasz
Takac, 2019, para 6)
https://www.google.com/url
?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F
%2Fwww.artimage.org.uk
%2F3535%2Fdamien-hirst
%2Fthe-physical-
Hirst, Damien (British, born 1965), The Physical Impossibility of Death in impossibility-of-death-in-
the Mind of Someone Living 1991. Tiger shark, formaldehyde solution in the-mind-of-someone-
glass and steel cabinet 4.5 x 1.5 x 1.5m. The Saatchi Gallery, London living--1991--detail-
This sculpture presents relatively simply,
in the tradition of Marcel Duchamp, the
objet trouvé and the conceptual art of the
1960s and 70s, as well as its position as a
postmodern work. However, the ideas
contained in the artwork , the questions
raised by it and the reactions of the
audience are elicited by the formal
qualities of the work. These create layers of
meaning that will differ for each person
viewing the work. Much of the work’s
significance will be derived from what each
audience member brings to it.
The formal qualities bring a viewer face to
face with a predatory animal that both
seems alive, contained in its own natural
environment as in an aquarium. And yet is
safely dead and preserved in a way that is
familiar with anyone who has visited a
natural history museum.