WINGED LIFE

Eternity by William Blake

He who binds to himself a joy

Does the winged life destroy

He who kisses the joy as it flies

Lives in eternity’s sunrise.

Winged Life is a human-sized, interactive sculpture of a monarch butterfly in a resting position with its wings pulled back. Participants can climb inside the body of the butterfly and interact with it to make the wings expand. As they let go, the wings will return to the resting, drawn-back position, ready to take flight again.

This is not a flying butterfly, but rather one that warms itself in the morning sun before taking off to its next destination. Winged Life symbolizes a moment in life when you need to let go of what was, spread your wings, and take off to a new adventure. You become the butterfly about to take flight after feeding, nurturing, and resting; ready to continue to the next phase of your life. Climb inside and be your own butterfly.

For now, I’m keeping the wing movement secret from the general public. Winged Life will be placed in deep playa to create that magical experience of finding one more art piece when you thought you had seen it all. I want the citizens of Black Rock City to stumble upon the butterfly and interact with it to organically discover the surprise.

The inspiration of the sculpture came to me while helping to install another sculpture, Ethyl by Joel Dean & Yustina Slanikov. Ethyl is a life-sized sculpture of an endangered blue whale covered entirely of tiles made from recycled plastic; created to bring attention to plastic pollution in the ocean. At the celebration of the installation, there was a discussion about the crisis that is happening to Mother Earth. Someone stated that it was the job of artists to save the animals and creatures, pollinators like bees, bats, and butterflies. I was immediately struck with the image of a monarch butterfly, something that has held a very special place in my heart. When I was a little girl, my father took me to see their migration. It was a magical experience. I had never seen so many butterflies before. They were so bunched together they looked like leaves on a tree, but they were butterflies. Thousands and thousands of orange butterflies. It was one of those childhood moments of pure joy and overwhelming connection, felt deep in my soul, to something much larger than me.

The whale made the ocean plastic pollution problem into something tangible, something you could see and feel. By making a monarch human size, I intend to make the plight of the pollinators tangible in a new way. The opportunity to experience a butterfly on a personal scale, something so small and fast-moving it is rarely encountered beyond a beautiful passing visual. I want to use this sculpture to educate and inspire. I intend to find opportunities to share Winged Life beyond Burning Man to achieve this goal. Safeguarding pollinators is one of the easiest, most accessible ways to make a difference to our environment. The monarch butterfly is one of the most well-known butterflies in North America. It has recently suffered serious population declines, and we are at serious risk of losing this beautiful creature forever.

In addition to my regular crew of builders and doers, I have teamed up with engineer and mechanical kinetics expert Matt Davis to create the complex movements of a butterfly’s wings. He is responsible for the design of projects of enormous scale, such as the 1,250 square ft expanding screen for U2’s 360° world tour and the 72 ft retractable arch for the 2002 Winter Olympic Medal Ceremonies. I first worked with Matt when he designed the breathing of R-Evolution by Marco Cochrane in 2015. He has since done his own project for Burning Man and helped with the engineering and movement of other playa projects. I am honored to have such a big talent helping to bring my project to fruition. 

If you would like to contribute to the project, you can so by clicking the button below.If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas about this project feel free to reach out. I look forward to sharing Winged Life with you.

Love, passion, and gratitude,

Katy