H-10
The Empresses

Damien Hirst's prints demonstrate a long-standing interest in butterflies, and The Empress collection perfectly captures his fascination with the creatures. In 1991, Hirst’s first solo exhibition in London In And Out Of Love revolved around a room full of live butterflies. As part of the exhibition, Hirst set up an artificially humid room in which he could breed butterflies to create an interactive art installation. Butterflies would be constantly hatching and flying around the exhibition space until they died. Butterflies have become a central component of Hirst’s visual language and the H-10 The Empresses collection resonates strongly with Hirst’s other collections that feature butterflies such as his Mandala paintings and the Kaleidoscope collection which the artist started in 2001.

One of the main reasons the artist was so drawn to this species of insect was because of the way they could be used to explore themes of life and death. Hirst explains that butterflies retain an iridescent beauty, even in death. The artist elaborates, “I love butterflies because when they are dead they look alive.” As is seen in the H-10 The Empresses collection, Hirst often makes art out of dead butterflies and despite the butterflies no longer being alive, the compositions he produces are filled with a beautiful and captivating energy and dynamism. For Hirst, butterflies embody the fragility of life and using this insect in his artworks is a means for the artist to address questions of mortality. Life, death and mortality are themes that Hirst often deals with in his art. Since the late 1980’s, Hirst has used various artistic practices, from installation to sculpture, painting and drawing to explore the relationship between art, life and death. The artist elaborates: “art’s about life and it can’t really be about anything else … there isn’t anything else.”

Butterflies also interest Hirst due to their spiritual heritage and the symbolic role the butterfly plays in many religions.  The Greeks used butterflies to depict the Psyche and the soul, and butterflies are often found in Christian imagery to signify the resurrection. The intricate patterns of the compositions in the H-10 The Empresses collection resonate with Buddhist mandalas as well as the stained-glass windows found in Gothic churches. The spiritual heritage attached to the butterfly, along with the spectacular patterns Hirst creates in this collection means that these artworks are imbued with religious undertones. Religion is a prominent theme in Hirst’s artworks and the artist often finds inspiration in contemporary belief systems such as religion, love and medicine which bring out the tensions at the heart of human existence.