Dennis Diderot

From The Outside Looking In

The reproduced artwork shows a shark whose physical being has been divided among three panels. Each container has a different part of the image that the artist is portraying. The first panel is completely empty, the second contains the lower half of the sharks' body, and the third contains the sharks upper body and head. The shark appears to be moving from the left to the right; the first part of the portrait on the left is completely vacant, while the two parts to the right contain portions of the shark. The emptiness of the first panel represents where the shark has been and shows continuous movement towards the third, and last panel. While the shark appears to be in motion it does, however, appear to come to a stop; the final container signifies the end of the image, the end of the motion of the shark. The end of the piece of art, which is glass, encloses the shark in a tight area, with nowhere to escape. It seems trapped; its massive teeth ready to shatter the glass surrounding it, and engulf whatever lies in its path. Its eyes are small, yet bulging with intensity; the shark focuses on breaking out of the tank that surrounds him, freeing itself from the trappings of its encasement. Even though the shark is dead and reproduced as artwork, its mind lives on through the energy produced outside of the tank, by those who cast their gazes upon it.

The work is titled "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living." This can be perceived as symbolizing that as long as the shark is in the case it lives on through its ability to captivate others. The shark's intentions will never be dead because of the curiosity that many people experience when viewing the artwork. The viewer and the shark's mind are both alive; the shark gives off a feeling of intriguing questions to individuals, whom then ponder curiously about this animal. The