Skull of a Unicorn from 2010 is a powerful continuation of Damien’s Hirst’s investigation into the themes of life, death, mythology, and science that pervade his iconic visual practice. The present work is comprised of a sterling silver cast horse’s skull, into which a long horn is embedded from the forehead. The sculpture takes the form of a shimmering unicorn, as Hirst juxtaposes the scientific with the mythical and reality with the supernatural. Skull of a Unicorn was included in Hirst’s prodigious project Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable which debuted at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice in April 2017. Hirst’s most ambitious and complex exhibition to date, the show took almost ten years to execute and choreograph, and told the fictional story of the ancient wreck of a large ship, ‘The Unbelievable’ and the legendary discovery of its precious cargo. The ship contained the collects ion of Aulus Calidius Amotan, a freed slave known as Cif Amotan II, the contents of which were promised to a temple dedicated to the sun. Comprised of approximately 190 works, including sculptures in silver, gold, bronze and marble, the exhibition conveyed on a colossal scale Hirst’s spectacular amalgamation of storytelling, mythology, history and science.

Exhibited at Punta della Dogana in Room 15 of the palace’s outside tower, Skull of a Unicorn was one of many skulls fictionally recovered from the wreckage of The Unbelievable. The sterling silver iteration was accompanied in the exhibition by versions in gold, bronze, rock crystal and aluminium, all of which were presented along-side Skull of a Cyclops in further iterations of Carrara marble, bronze, and aluminium. In the exhibition catalogue these mythical creatures are described scientifically as complex specimen: “The unicorn, or Monoceros, has been depicted in various forms for over 5,000 years. Goblets purporting to be made of unicorn ivory – which were thought to harbour extraordinary antidotal properties – appear amongst the possessions of the elite from the second century CE. It is of note that the spiralling horn… bears a strong resemblance to the tusk of a male narwhal. Centuries after the original object’s loss, tusks belonging to the narwhal…were interpreted as unicorn horns. This narwhal-like horn suggests that the analogy may first have been made on account of copies of this equine skull” (Anon., Exh. Cat., Venice, Palazzo Grassi, Punta della Dogana, Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable: Damien Hirst, 2017, p. 44-45). The works in the Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable conflate history with Greek mythology, and build upon Hirst’s long-standing investigation into the Victorian fascination with the natural world and a reverence for the spectacle of nature and the unpredictability of scientific specimen. Here, the scientific and the mythological collide in a marvellous, unexpected juxtapositioning that would become a hallmark of the show.

The 2017 exhibition in Venice showcased Hirst’s propensity to explore highly diverse and unique media, but it also outlined his interrogation of the skull as the ultimate symbol of death, one that he has explored consistently throughout his oeuvre. As an emblem of religion, death and rebirth, the skull has become one of Hirst’s most enduring motifs, one that encourages his viewers to consider the extraordinary – yet fragile – beauty of the natural world. As art critic and writer Michael Bracewell vividly summarises, “The viewer is confronted in each work by the physical representation, or its meticulously honed depiction, of those beliefs, ideas, conditions and institutions which shape the common basis of human experience. Morality, faith, medicine, religion, wealth and aesthetics comprise the principal themes and subject matter of Hirst’s paintings, sculptures and installations. The ceaseless interplay of these fundamental concerns, and their intrinsic relationship to the individual and society, are brought to life in works of the exquisite aphoristic refinement as well as graphic violence and sheer spectacle” (Michael Bracewell quoted in: Damien Hirst, Requiem I, 2009 (online)).

Skull of a Unicorn marries the mythological symbol of the unicorn with the scientific specimen of the horse’s skull, the latter of which anchors the present work firmly within the realm of reality. A key work in the extraordinary spectacle that was the Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable exhibition, and an emblem of death and demise, Skull of a Unicorn confronts us with the stark binary between reality and illusion, science and myth, past and present.