Away from the Flock
- Artist: Damien Hirst
- Date: 1994
- Medium: Glass, stainless steel, perspex, acrylic paint, lamb and formaldehyde solution
- Dimensions: Displayed: 960 x 1490 x 510 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
“This is “Away from the Flock” by Damien Hirst. It’s a floor‑based sculpture—a glass‑walled tank filled with a formaldehyde solution in which a dead sheep is fixed so it looks alive, caught mid‑jump. Thick white frames hold the tank; they make the turquoise liquid a brilliant backdrop for the wool.
The work exists in three versions made in 1994. The one we’re seeing is the third; its head has less black and a pinker tint than the earlier two, but the pose is similar: forelegs raised off the floor, the animal appearing to move.
Hirst built the “Natural History” series around this idea of life trapped in preservation—sharks, fish, cows—all skinned or sliced and placed in clear tanks. The frames are a signature of his work, echoing Minimalist linework but saturated with the bodily reality of the preserved animal.
With its title, Hirst is pointing at the religious motif of a lone sheep leaving the flock, adding layers of loss, memory and the human act of cutting out life for study. It’s a striking moment where stillness meets motion in clear glass.”
See it in person
Away from the Flock is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
