It Is Happening A Day At A Time ... And Not At All ...

Fig. 1. Damien Hirst - For The Love Of God, 2007


Every death is a miniature extinction.

Private Regrets And Hopes Of The Man Love Forgot

Fig. 1. Damien Hirst - Requiem, White Roses and Butterflies, 2008


'Sorrow is one of the vibrations that prove the fact of living.'

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Sunday Six: It Ain't No Carnival For The Animals

Fig. 1. Sue Coe - Elephant Slaughter in Sudan, 2007

Fig. 2. Scott Robert Hudson - Bison, 2005-2007

Fig. 3. Xavier Veilhan - Shark, 2008

Fig. 4. Steve McQueen - Running Thunder, 2007 (film still)

Fig. 5. Bill Hammond - Jingle Jangle Morning, 2006

Fig. 6. Damien Hirst - Tranquility from the “Butterfly” series (2002-)

The Janjuweed (Death on Horseback) using high powered rifles slaughter 100 elephants in one afternoon to sell the ivory to China. The money buys more weapons for the war in Darfur.

The Impossibility Of Nature In The Mind Of Anyone*

Fig. 1. Eduardo Sourrouille - Self-Portrait With An Impetuous Friend, 2008

'The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. That puts one in accord with nature, in her manner of operation.'

John Cage

* The Physical Impossibility Of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living (Damien Hirst)

If, At The Time Of My Death, Flies Are Keeping Vigil...

Fig. 1. Making a plaster death mask (New York, circa 1908)


'[Jules] Renard recorded in his Journal the death of [Henri de] Toulouse-Lautrec. The painter's father, a known eccentric, came to visit his son and instead of concerning himself with the patient immediately started trying to catch the flies circulating in the sick room. The painter, from his bed, remarked, 'You stupid old bugger!, then fell back and died.'

Julian Barnes (Nothing To Be Frightened Of)

Addendum: Dying - You're Already Doing It

Fig. 2. Damien Hirst - A Thousand Years (Steel, glass, flies, maggots, MDF, insect-o-cutor, cow's head, sugar, water), 1990

Damien Hirst talks about A Thousand Years with Rachel Campbell-Johnson


'But whenever I look at the question of how to live, the answer's always staring me in the face. I'm already doing it.'

Damien Hirst

Ask Not What You Can Do For Your Art, Dear Viewer

Fig. 1. Damien Hirst - Doodle of a skull on a napkin from The Ivy, 2007


'Don't look for the meanings; look for the use.'

Ludwig Wittgenstein