consume repeat #2, 1:17, 2016

In consume repeat #2, the subtle violence of the exchange between the Monarch Butterflies is contrasted with the slightly humorous frailty of their bodies. Organic gestures are mechanized through the editing process, and the movements speak to survival, compulsion, and entangled ecological relationships.

The metaphor of the butterfly effect – the notion that the minuscule flapping of the wings of a butterfly can dramatically affect the outcome of events in a larger system, such as weather – emphasizes the inter-connectivity of all entities and actions. When seen through the lens of isolated exchanges between insect bodies, this reveals the potential impacts of small violences, and the larger effects they can have. This forced intervention of the mechanization of the organic body highlights the human presence, albeit unseen, yet emphasizes inter-connectivity and impact that even the tiniest gesture can have in affecting relations.

The videos are also a reflection of our own oftentimes-obsessive relationship with consumption. The series deals explicitly with the notion of eating and attempts to acknowledge the frantic nature around actual survival, and ideally to draw a connection back to ourselves in this sense, but the hyper-stylization and the word ‘consume’ allows more metaphoric associations with ideas around consumption, particularly in our culture of excess and abundance, and the obsessive yet unfulfilling ways in which this is often engaged with.

screenings

2016 consume repeat #2, Binnar Media Arts Festival, Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal

pmd 2025