BUTTERFLY DREAMING
Antonio Caramelo’s installation in Spitalfields E1 makes you feel quite uneasy. At first inspection it appears there’s 24 glass jars each with a butterfly inside fluttering and trying to make its escape. It transports you back to hot days as a kid, trapping butterflies and keeping them in jam jars. There’s a real tinge of cruelty to the whole piece. But then after a closer look it becomes obvious that the butterflies aren’t real lepidoptera and the whole thing is a calculated poke at the senses. Microphones around the cabinet, positioned in front of the Bishops Square building, pick up residual sounds and transmit these to speakers attached to the lids of specially made glass jars. The transmitted signals through the small speakers then animate the butterflies via a very fine strand of almost invisible wire. The effect is really hypnotic and if you know your Red Admiral from your Peacock the whole thing is quite splendid.
