Butterfly FX
Emily Pelstring – 2021
In this terrarium, there are loose allusions to the “butterfly effect”, which describes how small changes can have unpredicted consequences. In the animated drama that unfolds, there are many strange and ambiguous cause-and-effect relationships.
Butterfly FX is somewhere between a terrarium and a reliquary. The work offers a reflection on these two traditions of containment: the terrarium as an attempt to contain the wild, and the reliquary as an attempt to capture the metaphysical within the material. This particular stained-glass box contains a fantasy ecosystem in which fluorescent cartoons, fetish objects, and cheap craft materials writhe in a bioluminescent garden. Animated creatures traverse through egg-portals and create elixirs, an ice-phallus blooms with spring flowers, and guardian butterflies watch over the situation. Symmetrical planes of reflective glass frame the activity and refract the light toward an ambiguous space beyond the container.
Butterfly FX was on display in the State of Flux Gallery from July 28, 2021 to October 9, 2021.
Photos by Chris Miner.
About the Artist
Emily Pelstring
Emily Pelstring is an artist and filmmaker, and is faculty in the Department of Film and Media at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Emily’s artistic research comes out of a desire to challenge normative ways of thinking about technological development by bringing antique media into contact with contemporary images. Her work takes interest in the material contingency of the cinematic spectacle, the evolution and cultural perception of various media forms, and the intersections of science and magic.
These inquiries have been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council, and the results have been exhibited internationally in museums, galleries, DIY spaces, and festivals. She has directed many music videos and short experimental films, specializing in animation techniques for 16mm film and vintage analog video.
In addition to her solo work, Emily is engaged in ongoing artistic collaborations with Jessica Mensch and Katherine Kline, her “sister-crones” in the trio The Powers. Their most recent collaboration, Sistership TV, was a web-based variety show that gathered numerous collaborators and guests to explore themes like human-animal communication, telepresence, hysteria, and witchcraft. Emily was also a core organizer of an international symposium called The Witch Institute at Queen’s University, which brought together scholars, artists, and practitioners to explore the meaning and impact of current media representations of the witch.