Damien Hirst’s Kill Monster, 2008, juxtaposes the delicacy of the butterflies — one of Hirst's most iconic motifs – and the industrial monochrome of red and black. Despite the harsh title of the work, the butterflies glide gracefully within the confines of the square canvases, evoking a sense of longing for freedom. However, these once-vibrant creatures are immobilized, pressed into the glossy paint on the canvas. Their wings shimmer as if they were still fluttering just moments before, yet now they are frozen in time, their beauty forever immaculate. Emblematic of Hirst’s maverick sensibility and an unerring aesthetic instinct, Kill Monster poetically delves into the cycle of life and death, fragility and permanence, and the juncture of art and reality.
“I think I’ve got an obsession with death, but I think it’s like a celebration of life rather than something morbid. You can’t have one without the other.”
—Damien Hirst
Hirst first incorporated butterflies into his practice with In and Out of Love, his first solo exhibition at Woodstock Street Gallery, London, in 1991. A catalyst for critical excitement in the contemporary art scene, the exhibition witnessed the entire life cycle of butterflies at its two-floored venue. On one floor, butterflies were hatched, sustained by sugar water, and flew freely until their eventual death. Monochrome canvases were mounted on walls, with plants positioned beneath to attract the butterflies to settle on the canvases. Conversely, the other floor featured bright pastel paintings embellished with dead butterflies.
Analogous to the paintings from In and Out of Love, Kill Monster captures the fleeting cycle of life, growth, and change within the abyss of black and red. The only two colors, black and red, allude to death and violence, calling back the title of the artwork, but also to love and passion, mirroring Hirst’s own romantic view of mortality. With one canvas at a 45° angle to the other, the two realms of love and death tilt towards one another in a poetic reminder of their interconnected state.