Commissioned by Stark Projects for From Light to Dust, a circus-themed, mixed-media exhibition first shown at the Roundhouse, London.
One of the many aspects of moths and butterflies that fascinated Vladimir Nabokov ... was the 'immemorial link' between overcoming gravity and transcending death."
Roger Deakin, Wildwood - A Journey Through Trees, 2007
INSTALLATION
Partially sandblasted glass sphere, video projector, DVD on continuous loop
Photography: Emma Dalesman
Projections of tropical butterflies inside a suspended glass sphere. Fragile, dusty wings hover and flutter in an aerial dance. The tattered black silhouettes are like puppets in a shadow play, magnified and distorted by the curving glass.
Flying at speed the Owl Butterflies appear light and carefree. But in slow motion their damaged wings seem under strain and their dance becomes relentless and sad. Their twilight world is an ambiguous, in-between place of illusions and apparitions.
The work suggests something of the psychological tensions of performance and the underlying melancholia of the circus fantasy.
Michaela Nettell, March 2009