Sanctum (Altar) forms part of Hirst’s Sanctum series which features six colour photogravure etchings. Typical of the thematic ideas and concepts with Hirst’s career, the works explore ideas around duality; life and death, beauty and horror, and the sacred and the macabre. Within Sanctum (Altar) we seek to understand our place within the universe in relation to both the very human concept of death as well as the diametrically opposed idea of life. The work itself presents mortality and our attempt to understand death is a central theme in his work. Like the stained glass windows of great gothic cathedrals, themselves a conduit to the divine and death, the work recalls towering odes to God. Of humanity itself crying out for anything that can remove the human condition and sin. In place of the figure of man is the figure of a butterfly - known for their short life spans and transformational existence. Central to the piece is the white butterfly, the only intact inset within the piece, surrounded by disembodied butterfly wings creating a kaleidoscopic effect through a beautifully vibrant use of colour that contrasts with the dark background.