The Cost / On the Backs of Butterflies
This semester, my aptly-named studio arts class, Image, has seriously broadened my range as an artist, going from painting watercolour landscapes to experimenting with photography and relief. I have been thoroughly removed from my prior comfort zone (sometimes against my will) and discovered new and exciting territory. I truly thought that my horizons could not be further expanded, until I was introduced to our altermodern project. Really, I should have known.
We were challenged to create a piece of performance or installation art, a work that transcends gallery walls, inserts itself into the daily life of the public, and reimagines how and where art can be experienced. The idea of having to expose myself in such a way and in a public space was terrifying. I’ve been playing with concepts of vulnerability in my art over the last 3 months but this was a whole new level.
Sent out into the city to find inspiration, I was drawn to Windsor’s empty lots, displays of fake flowers in window boxes, statuary of wild life and the weather itself, our belated spring. I looked at how we as humans try to control our natural environments and the creatures living within and how we, in turn, fail to do so. Those empty lots in particular struck me as wasted space, space that could be actually employed to rehabilitate endangered species like the monarch butterfly. I had something there, what’s more vulnerable than a butterfly?
Drawing inspiration from Ai Weiwei’s sunflower seeds piece, I wanted to create a large scale field of colour and I wanted to make people feel uncomfortable, to feel vulnerable and uncertain. I printed and hand-cut hundreds of monarch butterflies, attached them to a 6×6 ft canvas. I put a white pedestal table at the centre of it with a display of soy beans, one of the crops which has led to the elimination of milkweed, the food of monarch caterpillars. Presentation of the bean was intended as a reversal of roles, displayed as butterflies are in museums, pinned in place, while the butterflies are relegated to the floor. Moreover, I wanted people to have to stand on the 3D raised butterflies to be able to observe the display. I wanted people to feel uncomfortable about stepping on the butterflies, I wanted them to wince upon hearing the crunch of the wings under their shoes. It was thrilling to me that this was exactly the reaction experienced by the viewer.
The Cost / On the Backs of Butterflies