“There’s only ever been one idea in art. The only reason we do anything is to search for the answer to those questions: why, where, what, who? Where do we come from, where are we going, and is there a reason?”[1]

‘Where Are We Going? Where Do We Come From? Is There a Reason?’ was exhibited at Hirst’s first retrospective, ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’, at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, in 2004. The title references Paul Gauguin’s painting ‘Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?’ (1897). 

‘Where Are We Going? Where Do We Come From? Is There a Reason?’ follows on from an earlier instrument cabinet, ‘Something Solid Beneath the Surface of All Creatures Great and Small’ (2001). The cross-shaped glass display cabinet contains the skeletons of 76 different animal species.