Angels in America

2010

Angels in America is a seven part wall hanging sculpture of butterflies inspired by the Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name. Written by Tony Kushner, and first performed in 1991, the theatre production is a gay fantasia written for a disparate group of interconnected characters. My sculpture is a collection of seven butterflies, each loosely inspired by one of the story's main characters. While Angels is a single sculpture, the butterflies are individually mounted as separate 16" square wall hangings which can be arranged many different ways. As with the characters in the play, the relationships between the seven butterflies are complex and varying.

Each pair of butterfly wings, except for the one in bronze, is carved from a single piece of wood following the growth rings of the tree from which the wood came. The wing pairs on each side of the butterfly are two growth layers thick. By following the natural growth of the tree, the shapes of the wings are defined by the way the tree actually grew.