Nature In Absentia: Monarch Migrations

On Governors Island
ArtCrawl Harlem House, 2024
LMCC Arts Space, 2023

Multi-media Site-specific Installation

Handmade milkweed/mugwort paper origami butterflies inscribed with community migration stories, suspended from bird netting above a grand stairwell and printed map of the Monarch's annual migration routes from Mexico to Canada and back again. A large scale video projection from the Monarch Preserve in Michoacan, Mexico animates the space with glass terrariums sprouting milkweed plants and paper cast monarchs at rest hovering from milkweed encased metal oyamel fir branches.

Includes Ghosted American Chestnut, October, 2023 - 112” x 48” x 7” a bleached abaca and Thai kozo paper life cast of a blighted American chestnut tree found on Governors Island and Ghosted Butterflies at Rest, 54” x 9.5”diameter abaca cast of a cut log with flaxen butterflies at rest slipped over an existing standing lamp.

To submit a migration story of your own to this evolving installation please click below