“The Golden Moth that flies through the flame”

Shunt – London Bridge , 2010,

Obsession, Loce, Ritual, Collection, 2014, Embassy Tea Rooms.

Poetry, painting, stobe light, after image

Golden moth that flies through the flame

This immersive installation combines strobe lighting, poetry and iconography. The collection of works are about obsessional love and uses the symbolism of the moth who is attracted to the candle light and hence to the source of its own destruction. This theme was used by Goethe and Rumi – with an association of love with death, a dynamic that provides a narrative throughout the history of literature.

As you enter a darkened room a strobe light hits a mirror in the shape of a moth. This created a strong flash, a bright image of the silhouette of the moth: the image so bright that it leaves an after image of the moth on the retina.

After this initiation the viewer walks into an adjacent room, with the image of the moth still embedded in the memory. Here there is is an exhibit of poetry and images, with the poetry written in reverse and legible when read in a mirror cut into the shape of a moth on the opposite wall.

The poem reads-

Sparks fall into oil,

Igniting flames that cast shadows,

on cavern walls,

A shadow that reflects an image,

The hearts desire.

That wound the heart in its wanderings.

Seeking unity,

We are driven back into the den of certitude, to be greeted by fire,

Incinerating the moth with devastating ease.

This mirrored poem is accompanied by two iconographic images on fabric. A silhouette of the moth behind a veil of silk and an image of a golden moth: the gold moth being a survivor from the destructive element of fire.

This installation is about love and loss, with the optimistic conclusion that the two are interlinked. In the symbolic treatment of the subject the moth is attracted to its destructive destiny, but being made from the immutable substance of “Gold” shares the same symbolic references as “Fire” and “Sun”.