The classic in my head

When we saw Damien Hirst’s Cathedral series (in which massive installations of tropical butterflies were made to look like stained-glass windows of a cathedral) at the Tate Modern in 2006,we were completely blown away. Many people didn’t approve of the butterflies that were used,but from a visual point of view,as a work of art,we thought it worked fantastically well,and was stunning. This theme stayed with us—the way he reinvents something as mundane and day-to-day as patterns to depict a superior authority.

Hirst is critically dumped on all the time,and people call his work cynical,but he’s certainly very popular and influential. He’s one of the world’s greatest living artists,because he has completely reinvented the way art is seen. We’re not a big fan of his dot paintings but most of the rest of it engages,in a powerful way,with pain and death and life.

Like the Superstition series that these butterfly installations are a part of — it’s very poetic,it’s about religion,and it depends much less on shock and provocation than inward contemplation.

Anyway,we like the tension and contradiction between an immediate effect and how it makes you think. In Hirst’s own words,“As an artist,you’re looking for universal triggers. You want it both ways. You want it to have an immediate impact and you want it to have deep meanings as well. I’m striving for both.” So are we.