The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living

"The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" is a provocative artwork by Damien Hirst, featuring a real shark preserved in formaldehyde. It explores the tension between mortality and awareness; while living, we cannot fully grasp or accept the permanence of death. The piece suggests that confronting our mortality is impossible without confronting death itself, which remains physically unreachable and conceptually challenging to reconcile in life. Essentially, it highlights how the awareness of death is often hindered by its fundamental inaccessibility to the living mind.