Paul Villinski – Paradigm
on view September 11 - October 11, 2014

This solo exhibition at Morgan Lehman Gallery in Chelsea draws attention to the challenges of sustaining environments for some of New York's native species. Paul Villinski, the artist who has been working with the image of the butterfly for the last couple of decades, this time uses his signature image in conjunction with several live species of this most celebrated insect. Working together with one of the leading Lepidopterists, Dr. Rudi Mattoni, together they were able to construct a special system, a butterfly machine as it became to be known, that allowed breeding generations of butterflies in a controlled studio environment.

Paul Villinksi - Paradigm at Morgan Lehman Gallery. Image © Kristina Nazarevskaia

From the gallery:
"The exhibition’s principle sculpture, Self-Portrait, is a life-size figure fabricated from slender steel rods, clothed in fine nylon mesh. Each day, a handful of native butterflies bred by the artist will occupy the enclosed interior volume of the figure. Over the course of the day, the butterflies discover openings in the mesh and exit, causing the figure to slowly exhale its living occupants. The exhibition also includes a series of three circular forms made with the artist’s signature medium of discarded cans, meticulously hand-cut in the forms of over thirty distinct butterfly species – all either endangered or extinct."


Paul Villinski - Paradigm at Morgan Lehman Gallery. Image © Kristina Nazarevskaia

+-Interview Transcript

What inspired you to build the butterfly machine?

Paul Villinski: I’ve been working with butterfly imagery in my work for about two decades now and I employed it in a primarily symbolic fashion. I was essentially interested in the symbolism and metaphors the butterflies represent. Several years ago I was introduced by a curator to Dr. Rudi Mattoni, Ph.D., who is a leading lepidopterist in the United States and he and I became fast friends. He started to teach me about the actual butterfly biology About that time I started thinking about creating an art work that would employ live butterflies and an image of a human figure, filled with actual living butterflies struck me. So I started to move in that direction. Rather than simply purchasing butterflies that have ben bred by someone else it became very interesting to me to think about breeding butterflies in the studio, particularly, butterflies that are native to New York State, and butterflies which we caught ourselves.

Dr. Mattoni and I began to forage in the neighborhoods of New York City, including my own neighborhood. I caught my very first butterfly under his tutelage. We brought these butterflies back and set up a very rudimentary system for rearing butterflies in the studio.

Butterfly pupa. Paul Villinski - Paradigm at Morgan Lehman Gallery. Image by Simon Campbell
Metamorphosis
Is the metaphor of transformation evident in other aspects of your work, if so, how?

Paul Villinski: My work has been involved with transformation for many, many years. In the simplest terms I’ve been involved in working with found materials – generally things that have been found on the streets of my neighborhood and that have no apparent value. And in the last decade or so, quite a bit of work done with aluminum cans. These cans are crushed by traffic passing over them. They really have no value at all. My task has really been to take these worthless, cast-off materials and transform them into something that has particular meaning, has this kind of resonance and has some aesthetic quality. That’s one of the reasons the image of the butterfly has been important to me over the years. The butterfly itself is a symbol of transformation and rebirth. And it’s really the universal symbol for metamorphosis and transformation.