Another work:
John Kalymnios, Untitled (Butterfly) (detail), 2003
29 butterflies mounted on aluminum,
motors, each 4 1/2 X 6 inches, variable heights
Collection of Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
Kalymnios
does not merely deconstruct nature, he perfects it. He extracts from it
the reverie and serenity it can bring us in our most elevating encounters
with it, and then frees it from the deterioration of time by adding mechanical
elements. On occasion, Kalymnios's kinetic sculptures even resurrect nature,
as with Untitled (Butterfly) (2003) in which 29 dead butterflies
are given new life. As miraculous as the new life from the cocoon in nature
may be, it is fleeting; Kalymnios, however, allows the miracle to live
on by animating the insects with the help of motorized wires. What results
is a flock of iridescent butterflies moving their delicate wings in a
simulation of flight, long after their demise. Kalymnios's ability to
eternalize the new life of the butterfly recalls Yeats's line, “Once out
of nature, I shall never take my bodily form from any living thing/but
such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make … set upon a golden bough to sing
… of what is past, passing, or to come.”
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