The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
E191892
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living is a famous contemporary art installation by Damien Hirst featuring a preserved tiger shark suspended in a glass tank of formaldehyde, exploring themes of mortality and perception.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living canonical | 7 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1697413 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living Context triple: [Damien Hirst, notableWork, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living]
-
A.
Brillo Boxes
Brillo Boxes is a series of sculptural works by Andy Warhol that replicate commercial Brillo soap pad packaging, exemplifying his exploration of consumer culture and mass production in Pop Art.
-
B.
Collection de l’Art Brut
The Collection de l’Art Brut is a renowned Lausanne museum dedicated to outsider art, showcasing works created outside traditional artistic institutions.
-
C.
Night Gallery
Night Gallery is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling that presents macabre and supernatural stories, often with twist endings.
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D.
The Son of Man
The Son of Man is a famous 1964 painting by Belgian surrealist René Magritte depicting a bowler-hatted man whose face is obscured by a hovering green apple, often interpreted as a commentary on identity and hidden reality.
-
E.
Promise of the Real
Promise of the Real is an American rock band led by Lukas Nelson, known for its roots-rock sound and frequent collaborations and touring with Neil Young.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living Target entity description: The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living is a famous contemporary art installation by Damien Hirst featuring a preserved tiger shark suspended in a glass tank of formaldehyde, exploring themes of mortality and perception.
-
A.
Brillo Boxes
Brillo Boxes is a series of sculptural works by Andy Warhol that replicate commercial Brillo soap pad packaging, exemplifying his exploration of consumer culture and mass production in Pop Art.
-
B.
Collection de l’Art Brut
The Collection de l’Art Brut is a renowned Lausanne museum dedicated to outsider art, showcasing works created outside traditional artistic institutions.
-
C.
Night Gallery
Night Gallery is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling that presents macabre and supernatural stories, often with twist endings.
-
D.
The Son of Man
The Son of Man is a famous 1964 painting by Belgian surrealist René Magritte depicting a bowler-hatted man whose face is obscured by a hovering green apple, often interpreted as a commentary on identity and hidden reality.
-
E.
Promise of the Real
Promise of the Real is an American rock band led by Lukas Nelson, known for its roots-rock sound and frequent collaborations and touring with Neil Young.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
art installation
ⓘ
contemporary artwork ⓘ |
| artForm | installation art ⓘ |
| artist | Damien Hirst ⓘ |
| artisticMovementContext | Britart ⓘ |
| artisticTechnique | taxidermy-like preservation ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Gagosian Gallery
ⓘ
Tate Modern exhibitions ⓘ
linked to:
Tate Modern
|
| commissionedBy | Charles Saatchi ⓘ |
| conservationAction | shark replaced with a new specimen ⓘ |
| conservationIssue | shark decomposition ⓘ |
| controversy |
debate over whether it is art or spectacle
ⓘ
ethical concerns about use of animals in art ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| creator | Damien Hirst ⓘ |
| depicts | tiger shark ⓘ |
| displayEnvironment | white-cube gallery space ⓘ |
| displayOrientation | shark suspended horizontally ⓘ |
| displayType | museum installation ⓘ |
| exhibitionHistory | first exhibited in London ⓘ |
| genre | conceptual art ⓘ |
| hasPart |
formaldehyde solution
ⓘ
preserved shark ⓘ rectangular glass vitrine ⓘ |
| hasTitle | The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living ⓘ |
| influenced | public perception of Young British Artists ⓘ |
| influencedBy | memento mori tradition ⓘ |
| laterOwner |
Steven A. Cohen
ⓘ
linked to:
Steve Cohen
|
| marketReception | high auction and private sale valuations ⓘ |
| materialUsed | steel ⓘ |
| medium |
formaldehyde
ⓘ
glass tank ⓘ tiger shark ⓘ |
| movement | Young British Artists ⓘ |
| notableFor |
controversy over preservation and decay
ⓘ
iconic status in 1990s British art ⓘ use of a real dead animal ⓘ |
| originalOwner | Charles Saatchi ⓘ |
| patron | Charles Saatchi ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
death
ⓘ
mortality ⓘ perception of death ⓘ |
| theme |
fear of death
ⓘ
relationship between viewer and death ⓘ spectacle in contemporary art ⓘ |
| workTitleLanguage | English ⓘ |
| yearCreated | 1991 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living Description of subject: The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living is a famous contemporary art installation by Damien Hirst featuring a preserved tiger shark suspended in a glass tank of formaldehyde, exploring themes of mortality and perception.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Young British Artists
→
notableWorkExhibited
→
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
ⓘ
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
→
hasTitle
→
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
ⓘ
Mother and Child (Divided)
→
relatedWork
→
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
ⓘ
A Thousand Years
→
relatedWork
→
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
ⓘ
Natural History series
→
notableWork
→
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
ⓘ
Natural History
→
notableWorkInSeries
→
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
ⓘ