iMigration 2 is a large-scale sculpture, a swarm of colourful paper butterflies, spanning five metres and suspended ten metres up in the air inside the Abbey. It is the second incarnation of a sculpture that appeared in the Bath Abbey in 2016.
The first impression for the audience is of a single group, a swarm of creatures that appear to be the same. Closer inspection reveals that each butterfly is unique, with its own digital genetic code and individual wing pattern influenced by random mutations.
The sculpture, like its predecessor iMigration, continues the exploration of the themes of migration, diversity and individuality. In the swarm each butterfly features colour and patterns designed with computational methods: procedural textures and the fractal mathematics of nature. The butterflies move gently in the air currents that fill the Abbey as if travelling on a migration. In today’s world of human migration and its reporting, it’s easy to forget how unique each person is, to reduce people to anonymous groups, stereotypes, or just numbers.
The artist invites the audience to seek out individual stories of migration, of fellow human beings in a world saturated by ‘mass’ media reporting, statistics and the digital consumption of news.
The work will be on show from Feb 8th 2017 to Feb 8th 2018.
Date:
February 2017
Funders:
Bath Spa University.
Event Location:
Bath Abbey, Bath, UK
Number of Pieces:
1
Medium:
Paper sculpture
Measurements/Duration:
5m x 5m x 3m
Keywords:
sculpture, installation, migration, digital print, coding