Haven
Haven was created as part of a collaboration between ASU's Ceramics and Microscopy departments. Ceramics students chose objects that they would send to Microscopy, and the resulting electron microscopic image was used to create a sculpture. I met with Dr. Ronald Rutowski, who works in the Life Sciences department on the evolutionary coloration of butterflies, and he supplied me with an Orange Sulphur butterfly. This species is unique, as its scales contain microstructures that contain pterins, pure pods of pigment, that absorb and reflect light to produce the coloration seen in a butterfly's wing.
Having used the image of the butterfly in previous projects as a reference to death and transformation, I wanted to create a form that could somehow highlight and encase ephemeral moments witnessed in nature. I'm referencing the quiet transformative moments experienced when you encounter something beautiful, fleeting, and fragile. I created this garden architecture as modular gates to contain milkweed plants, whose beds are known as butterfly havens that enthusiasts plant along migration routes.
The work ages with the space around it, itself an ephemeral event. In this project, I began looking to the life of materials. When bare wood and fishing line are subjected to long periods of exposure and intense sun, they fade, warp, and crack. What will remain for thousands of years are these pods of vibrant color. Shaped as ovoids, they recall eggs, a symbol of birth and potential.
Having used the image of the butterfly in previous projects as a reference to death and transformation, I wanted to create a form that could somehow highlight and encase ephemeral moments witnessed in nature. I'm referencing the quiet transformative moments experienced when you encounter something beautiful, fleeting, and fragile. I created this garden architecture as modular gates to contain milkweed plants, whose beds are known as butterfly havens that enthusiasts plant along migration routes.
The work ages with the space around it, itself an ephemeral event. In this project, I began looking to the life of materials. When bare wood and fishing line are subjected to long periods of exposure and intense sun, they fade, warp, and crack. What will remain for thousands of years are these pods of vibrant color. Shaped as ovoids, they recall eggs, a symbol of birth and potential.