Conversations with Damien - a photo on Flickriver

“I’ve got an obsession with death" said Damien. "But I think it’s like a celebration of life rather than something morbid.”

The first ‘Kaleidoscope’ painting, ‘It’s a Wonderful World’, was created in 2001. Supposedly inspired by a Victorian tea tray found by Hirst, the works are made by sticking thousands of colored butterfly wings in tedious and fussy geometric mandalas on latex paint.

"You'd better watch out for PETA," I advised the artist. I was assured these wings were given up willingly by the insects for the massively over sized and over hyped works of art. An assistant nearby spouted "And we have receipts to prove it!"

The ‘Kaleidoscope’ paintings imply some sort of spiritual symbolism of the butterfly, used by the Greeks to depict Psyche, the soul, and in Christian imagery to signify the resurrection. The works are reminiscent of, and even sometimes directly copy stained glass windows. Their titles similarly reference Christian iconography, and Damien chose to name a collection of paintings in 2008 after entries in The Book of Psalms.

"Looks like a bunch of butterfly wings stuck in paint", I said.

Whilst the butterfly is one of Damien’s most enduring “universal triggers”, in the ‘Kaleidoscope’ paintings he differs from his use of them in earlier works. Previously, the inclusion of live butterflies, as in the installation ‘In and Out of Love’ (1991), or whole dead ones in his butterfly monochrome paintings, was partially an exploration of “the way the real butterfly can mimic an ideal (birthday-card) kind of love; the symbol exists apart from the real thing, that's the thing.”

Recalling someone once saying to him: “Butterflies are beautiful, but it’s a shame they have disgusting hairy bodies in the middle,” Hirst decided to use only the iridescent wings in his ‘Kaleidoscope’ paintings, divorcing the butterflies from “the real thing.”

"Looks like you didn't want to offend anyone," I stated.

"Fuck you," sneered the artist.

"There's no smoking in here!" announced a security guard.

I crushed my cigarette underneath my foot. "Looks like we've done all we can do here." I stated.

"Yeah, do you know a good place for crawfish and beer? I'm buying." asked the artist.

"Piss off," I said as I walked out of the pretentious and oppressive gallery into the New Orleans rain.

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Taken on: April 13, 2019

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I Am Become Death, Shatterer of Worlds’ (2003 - 2006)

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