Memento Mori

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living by Damien Hirst, 1991, at Tate Modern.

Remember your mortality.

That was the theme of Damien Hirst’s work and exhibit.

Visited Tate Modern’s Damien Hirst exhibit yesterday to experience and understand the popularity and demand for Damien Hirst’s work.

I was trying to understand what it reflected about ourselves and the society we live in, for as what Alain de Botton mentioned, we seem to be drawn to things which we consider beautiful because it is a reflection of what we are missing with our lives.

Damien Hirst’s work is mainly about life and death, the inevitable yet hugely uncomfortable.

Modern society has led us to take life for granted and living in a sense has become too easy, too easy to the point that we forget the value of living your life.

We spend so much time in our mortality in pursuits of physical gratification that we often forget that it doesn’t mean anything at all in the face of death.

We forget that life actually is meant to be hard, and anyone who needs a reminder should go watch a nature documentary.

One of the best ways to live ironically is to remember that you are going to die.

That then pretty much put the things you want to do into a much clearer perspective.