Comparative Study of Uncertainty Characteristic in the Works of Two Contemporary Artists (Damien Hirst and Michael Borremans)

One of the most essential characteristics of postmodern philosophy involves the abundance of opinions and concepts and the multi meaning and values of definitions that expressively lead to the presentation of relative and uncertain solutions. Uncertainty, as one of the main characteristics of postmodernism, is related to other subsectors of postmodern philosophy such as lack of objectivity, multi reasoning, multi meaning, pluralism and skepticism. Many contemporary artists in conceptualizing uncertainty consider subjects of binary oppositions such as presence and absence, existence and nothingness, stability and instability, etc. as the pivot of their ideas and this approach gradually has changed into a distinctive element in their works. Damien Hirst and Michael Borremans are among such artists. These two artists each have differently expressed the issue of uncertainty. The fundamental question in the current research involves the manner by which the concept of uncertainty is represented in the contemporary artworks through different media, style and artistic approaches. According to the research findings, specifically in the works of the two artists under study, the noted concept has surfaced through different techniques, tools, and media. While Borremans has employed traditional painting media(of course eclectically with history of art, photography and theatre) to express the mentioned idea and Hirst has enjoyed mysterious installations and executions to convey the concept, but conceptual similarities in the works of these two artists such as life and death, possibility and impossibility, realism and fantasy, etc. have been blended and expressed with a certain bitter sarcasm. This research has been conducted as a descriptive-comparative study and the results reveal that creating challenge in the mind of the audience through opposing concepts has led to the expression of the common idea of uncertainty in the works of these two artists.