Damien Hirst’s Kaleidoscopes series continues the artist’s decades-long exploration of vivid butterfly wings arranged in geometric patterns. The meticulously structured, symmetrical compositions, set against a brightly coloured ground, create a dynamic visual effect in which the butterflies seem to shift and rotate before the viewer’s eyes.

Inspired by Victorian tea trays decorated with butterfly wings, Hirst’s butterfly arrangements, not unlike the rows of specimens pinned in Victorian cabinets, invite reflection on the complex relationship between life, death and the desire to preserve fleeting beauty. The Victorian era’s fascination with nature and scientific classification resonates with Hirst’s practice, as both draw on the idea of cataloguing and preserving the ephemeral.