Focus Area: Study in form, materiality, essence of form-giving, philosophy
Approach: Material explorations, semantics, abstraction
THE BUTTERFLY IN SPIRIT
"The spirit of a butterfly is bound not
in the colourful wings that you see;
It breathes free -
in the colourful wings that you see;
It breathes free -
through its ethereal lightness of movement
...and divine vitality."
...and divine vitality."
A childhood fascination - butterflies, to me, as to the many cultures across the world, are symbols for the soul and the ethereal. The challenge was to capture, not its colourful and more popular associations with youth and frivolity, but the subtler traits - fleeting nature, delicacy of movement, lightness, and fragility.
Body and spirit-1 - one wing is physical - the other, void
Body and spirit-2&3 - the 'body' is just a void on its own physical wings
Movement-1 - the journey path is one with the butterfly - she carries its lessons in her evolving spirit, forever
Materiality-1 - Strength in lighness - ductile and impressionable, a cut or fold only reveals more strength and beauty
ETHERFLY
The final material chosen was acrylic, to denote lightness, transparency and fragility. The form was kept fluid, asymmetrical and the wings held in place with minimum contact points at the core, letting it 'float' in space.
Crafted with only three gently heat-moulded, thin, ribbon-strips of transparent acrylic, the Etherfly's wing-strips are free to move about the central acrylic body-column
Etherfly is dynamic, and not to be viewed only from one side - every viewing position around it reveals a different state of its flight.
Etherfly in perpetual visual motion
