Milagros Imigrando/Migrating Miracles
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
Alison Sky created this flock of monumental butterflies to celebrate the important relationship that exists between the United States and Mexico, and to rejoice in the diverse wildlife and landscape of the Rio Grande border region. Sky drew her inspiration from the Monarch butterflies that migrate annually through this territory, which become symbolic of the exchanges that flow back and forth over the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge. For her, mutual respect and collaboration between cultures and ecosystems represent the future of our planet. Fragile butterflies, which are intimately connected to the natural environment, metaphorically represent this notion of interdependency.
Many cultures use the butterfly symbolically, to convey ideas such as rebirth and spiritual transformation. For example, this symbolism played a major role in the representation of America's pre-Columbian deities, among them Quetzalcoatl and Itzpapalotl. Like these earlier artistic traditions, Sky's work emphasizes the importance of metamorphosis, which the butterfly - due to its magical transformation from a humble caterpillar - so perfectly represents. Specifically, her sculpture is comprised of anthropomorphic butterflies, which have human eyes incorporated into the patterns of their colorful wings. This fresh combination of familiar forms creates a unique symbolic vocabulary, which becomes a benevolent salutation for travelers arriving and departing across the gateway between the United States and Mexico.
Each pair of wings contains six special inserts, made from a colored, iridescent, and dichroic glass. These glass pieces form the human eyes of the upper wings, as well as the nonrepresentational patterns of the lower wings. When sunlight passes through this prismatic glass, it breaks apart into many vibrant colors, which shimmer across the border station's canopy. Additionally, the silhouettes of the wings' delicate, lace-like tracery cast ever-changing patterns of shadows over the building.
