“This violence at best is metaphorical violence. It’s art. What is a metaphor when in reality?”

I’m going to write this in all of its complications. This will be the first of many attempts. I am going to begin by first declaring: I cut butterflies from the images of naked white men, deemed by some as lewd. I do this knowingly. And still, I need to write and say this out loud.

Article continues after advertisement

I’ve cut out more than 10,000 butterflies over the course of a decade. I began this practice in response to the artist Damien Hirst’s art installation titled “In and Out of Love,” resulting in the death of 9,000 butterflies. I began as a protest, matching the killing of 9,000 lives with a corresponding number of male genitals and anuses, all in an effort to say, “What a dick. What an asshole.” It seemed appropriate at the time. It seems appropriate even now.

What began as a protest evolved into a practice of meditation.…