Damien Hirst|Rainbow Editions (H7)

'Rainbow Editions' is Hirst's response to the first Covid-19 lockdown, and the release that opened his HENI prints to buyers in their thousands. For one week anyone could order, and every order placed became part of the edition. A rainbow made of wings By spring 2020 the rainbow had become Britain's emblem of support for the NHS, a sign of peace and collective strength at a time of fear and isolation. Hirst called it "a sign of hope". He built both designs digitally from photographs of butterfly wings sorted into bands of colour, so each image reads first as a plain rainbow or heart and only up close as a mass of wings. The tightly fitted arrangement recalls his 'Kaleidoscope' paintings, though here the wings follow the stripes instead of radiating from a centre. Pale yellow wings almost dissolve into the ground, while the blues are rendered sharply enough to pass for specimens. Where the money went The two designs supported different causes. All profits from 'Butterfly Rainbow' went to NHS Charities Together, which represents the NHS's official charities, and raised £1,508,172. 'Butterfly Heart' raised about £1.55 million for The Felix Project, a London charity that redistributes surplus food, through the Evening Standard's Food For London Now appeal. Copies of 'Butterfly Rainbow' were later given free to NHS trusts around the country, and the print now hangs in hospitals including Salisbury District Hospital and Dorset County Hospital. Before and after Before H7, Hirst's HENI butterflies had been set into kaleidoscopes in H6 - The Aspects (2019). 'Rainbow Editions' laid them out in stripes and turned them into a fundraiser. That summer H6 - The Elements went back to the kaleidoscope, in a small fixed edition. The charity drop returned in September with H8 - Fruitful And Forever, which funded Save the Children's work in Italy with details of the 'Cherry Blossoms', and moved Hirst's HENI prints from wings to paint.