Vladimir Nabokov spent most of his life researching, collecting and studying butterflies. He was actually so interested in it that he could have pursued a career as a researcher if writing had not become so successful. He spent countless days of his childhood hiking around St. Petersburg and Crimea looking for different species of moths and butterflies that he captured and analyzed obsessively. Hundreds of drawings exist, illustrating wings, patterns and body shapes to great detail. His biggest dream was to discover new species, which he did, upstate New York, later in his life.

Damien Hirst had a similar fascination with butterflies but he was less interested in studying them and more in exploring the idea of death (most butterflies live as little as four weeks). “In and Out of Love” from 1991 is said to have used more than 9000 butterflies that ended up dying in the room or where pinned to the canvases. I guess we have some sort of an obsession with these beautiful creatures, maybe because of their brief lifespan. It is like we want to preserve beauty forever, like a cry at our own mortality.