joseph scissorhands: Oswaldo Maciá: Migratory Movements

Oswaldo Maciá - Red Admiral Vanessa - Migration North Africa to UK (rondo), 2025

Certain other artists working with the butterfly motif naturally arouse my interest. I am curious to see in what ways they use the motif in comparison to me. A new discovery was the artist Oswaldo Maciá whose exhibition - Oswaldo Maciá: Migratory Movements, is currently running at the Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery on Exmouth Market. Like myself Maciá is interested in certain butterfly characteristics chiefly migration, and other urgent issues facing not only butterflies but wider animal/insect/plant species such as extinction with the overuse of pesticides etc. affecting natural habitats and the environment. In the exhibition we see Maciás drawing studies and paintings of different species (some now sadly thought to be extinct), with accompanying colour charts and field notes. the drawings are quite energetic and loose, whereas the paintings are more studied. There are also two large sepia hangings of a cockroach and a magnolia flower. Like myself (here) Maciá addresses the theme of butterfly migration creating drawings with arrows indicating migratory routes, whereas I use stitched thread to denote flight paths. Maciá too is aware of the work of noted literary figure and lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov (previously here), and his work with butterflies and their migratory habits, using the author's research and findings in his own investigations. Nabokov hypothesised that Blue butterflies arrived in the Americas from Asia by crossing the Bering Strait over a period of millions of years. When he made these findings public in 1945, he was ridiculed by the scientific community, who thought his hypothesis wrong due to the short lifespan of a butterfly. Today though, through DNA sequencing techniques, we know Nabakov's findings to be true. Maciá is a multi-disciplinary artist known for his work with scents. This show also includes an element of his signature scent pieces entitled Consciousness contained within a glass carafe on a pedestal from which the visitor can pump the scent and consider what consciousness can smells like. Maciá also works with sound and there are two special Jasper Morrison designed benches which sporadically emit birdsong. This sound installation was inspired by clergyman John Wilkins who attempted to determine all the species that embarked on Noah’s legendary Ark – the first and most archetypal mass displacement of species in Christian mythology. Wilkins’ efforts, made in 17th-century Britain, informs Maciá’s acoustic piece- Tomorrow will be Cloudy (2001–25), with sounds from all the species listed by Wilkins, sourced by the artist from the British Library’s archives. I found this to be a fascinating exhibition which opens up further possibilities with the butterfly motif within my own practice.