Pagkakataon is made up of 860 paper butterflies.
These butterflies have been hand-traced and hand-cut.
Each has been individually spray-painted, strung up, and glued.
In total, 8-9 people worked on this project over 3 months.
Precisely 600 butterflies make up the hallway.
There are 25 rows of 12 butterflies each.
160 butterflies are on the gallery walls.
100 butterflies are being given away.
No butterflies
were harmed in the making of this installation.
In celebration of Kapisanan’s Kultura exhibition theme of Pamahiin/Ritual, ‘Pagkakataon’ is an art installation, in the form of a hallway of black and white paper butterflies ending in a mirror hung opposite, which means to open up the symbolic world around us and emphasize our centrality to that world. As an interactive experience, ‘Pagkakataon’ make us see ourselves not only as subjects but also agents involved in the transitions of meaning, the processes by which we attach symbolic meaning to material objects or Pamahiin/Ritual. Through the colour contrast between the monochromatic butterflies and ourselves which we see in real-colour reflected in the mirror, and the aesthetic versus symbolic contradiction of the butterflies which represent various Pamahiin omens, the installation invites us to consider the butterflies first and foremost as symbols of the richness of culture and ideas, rather than the varying omens attached to them.
Through its arrangement of colour and design, ‘Pagkakataon’ aims to represents the harmony and various-ness of life in order to prompt the spectator into positive contemplation of omens and positive reinterpretation of these omens as part of their journey to realizing their self-value in the rituals that have shaped them. Butterflies of different colours, black, versus white, versus brown, versus yellow, symbolize different omens respectively.
Black - Death of a relative or a visiting deceased relative.
White - Wealth
Brown - Loss of money
Yellow - Good luck
The installation invites spectators to take pride in their background, the Pamahiin/Ritual and oral histories that have brought them here, by guiding them into continuing these rituals as they make their own interpretations of the butterflies and installation.
People involved:
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People involved:
MOT: Aleah, Alex, Ava, Cat, Chris, Danielle, Joy, Szara, and others...
Thank you to:
Kapisanan: Caroline, Kat, Nicole, and others...