Art News Blog: Replacing a Dead Shark

Perhaps his most famous work (The physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone living) will soon be replaced with a new dead shark. The work was made in 1991 and is already falling apart, the liquid is murky, and the shark has changed shape.

Dear Damien Hirst, He’s always good for art news. You may recall I mentioned the fact that the shark was improperly pickled and was rotting? well, now he is under discussions with the owner (who payed an astronomical sum) to re pickle a new shark.

The issue surrounding these talks is whether the new ‘Physical Impossibility’ will be a copy of the work or the same piece continuing on. I think the title is the key. By improperly pickling the shark the piece is refuting its own title. that is if it is seen directly – that the shark itself is the physical impossibility of death in the mind of someone living. If the title refers to Hirst, however, then it doesn’t matter because the work of art isn’t the shark itself but the controversies and news surrounding the piece. Hirst is the physical impossibility because while he continues to make headlines and be discussed around the art world then his death would be a physical impossibility because he is alive in the minds of many living people.

Whether you like him and his work or not, he has achieved immortality. And that is the prime goal of most artists I think.