A THOUSAND
BUTTERFLIES ⟫
washi paper, indigo, mixed media installation
A Thousand Butterflies
washi paper, indigo, mixed media installation
The sight of butterflies flittering along, more often than not, will affect those who behold them with feelings of delight.
They are also very fragile, their bodies easily crushed, and with fleeting life cycles. It is their sensitivity to change that has synonymously linked them as signifiers of fluctuating conditions within the environment. This could be in the form of varying temperatures, pollution, or leaked radiation. For this reason, they have been researched, studied and monitored.
The motive for this piece in particular came after reading an article about a study conducted by an Okinawan university on the impact of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster on Japan’s Pale Grass Blue Butterfly. This small inconspicuous butterfly is actually the most common in Japan and for this reason the lab had already been researching it as an indicator of environmental changes. The thought that the radiation could affect butterflies in the area was terrifying for me and so I decided to make this piece in hope for their future. In a similar way that the folding of one thousand origami cranes has come from its origins as an auspicious gift to loved ones, or often displayed in shrines and temples, to its status as a symbol of peace following the Hiroshima nuclear bomb; I thought that the folding of a thousand butterflies could be an act of hope for the future of the environment following the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
For this piece, I folded one thousand origami butterflies from 'washi' paper made from Japanese mulberry fibres before dyeing them with natural indigo. Viewers were also invited to enter the dreamscape installation and make wishes of their own, whilst contemplating how something non-human and small like a butterfly might see the world.