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IDEX Art Installation in San Francisco, Tea Fairies, Butterflies, Bat.
Butterlies, fairies and a bat in an art installation in San Francisco.
Flutter, the Bat at IDEX art installation, hand painted tapestries.
Butterflies, bats, garden tea fairies in a tapestry covered aviary.
Jane Darin's art installation at San Francisco IDEX.
I Dream of the Sky, a butterfly shedding its chrysalis.

Main Photo Above

 1

 KEY TO PHOTOS ABOVE:
1. - View toward the entry
2. - Flutter, the bat hanging
3. - Overall view
4. - Three butterflies

5. - I Dream of the Sky
6. - Dream's Face
7. - Fairies at the fountain
8. - Large Garden Tea Fairy
9. - Large Garden Tea Fairy
2
3
4
9 8 7 6 5

 

"I Dream of the Sky" doll is available to purchase! She is in photo 5 and 6.
If interested, please email us at
info@dollmakersjourney.com

 

 To see the individual pieces, follow the links at the bottom of this page.

 MATERIALS

  • Size: 10' x 12' x 8' high

  • Sides & Top: hand painted cotton gauze

  • Figures: varied in size from 13" to 18"

 ART INSTALLATION STORY 

In November of 1998, ten doll artists were invited to do an art installation at the IDEX conference to be held in January in San Francisco. This was the brainstorm of Uta Brauser.  Her idea was to create areas at doll shows that were "purely devoted to cultural information and education."

The artists were "to prepare an installation of a theme of their choice using figures, doll parts and any other object and material necessary." That was the challenge and my response was a "Butterfly Experience."

My plan was to recreate in a somewhat abstract way, the magical experience that I had at the San Diego Wild Animal Park where I was able to hold a live butterfly on my finger.  In a 12’ by 12’ x 8’ high space, I planned to recreate a aviary where people could experience the feeling of being in a green healing space with art dolls and forms representing butterflies, a bat and garden fairies.
 POEM
I Dream of the Sky
      © Jane Darin 1999

At first I played alone among the leaves
 I sought out the dark and hidden spaces.
I dreamed of the earth
And longed for you, my God.

Eating my way through life
 After several changes of skin,
It was You who caused my desire.
I called out to You.
You came and whispered, “Dream of the Sky.”
And I longed for You, my Lord.

Then I entered the darkest place.
 Confined, I waited again for my skin to crack.
Drying, fragile, dangling by a silken thread,
Scarcely able to imagine Your presence, my Love.

What could be the purpose?
 What will be the results?
A half breath before extinction, I called out
“Someone. Anyone. Cut me loose.”
And I questioned Your wisdom and Your love.

It was Your grace that I break my own bindings,
 Lest I emerge too soon, forever weak and crippled.
How else could I know my strength, my truth?
How else could I discover that You are me?

 BUTTERFLY EXPERIENCE

People were able to first experience this from outside the space because of its translucence. As they came closer to the installation and entered the space, they heard the soft sounds of a water fountain and meditative piano music.

People's responses were terrific. Some came out crying. Some asked what I had done special to the air inside. Others seemed to emerge from a reverie. A doll artist later told me her parents could speak of nothing else but this experience when she met them for dinner.

I felt, and the poem seems to agree, that I had emerged into a new experience doing this project, one of fresh strength and truth. Sometime during this experience, a story circulated about how a butterfly is permanently crippled if assisted in breaking out of the chrysalis just as a bird needs to break from its own egg to have enough will and strength to fly. 

This project coincided with my sixtieth birthday. In the Hindu tradition, according to my guru, Sathya Sai Baba, sixty years is a time of turning back toward God and being on the homeward journey. Sixty years out and I've learned to trust my inner strength. Sixty years back to test it. One hundred and twenty years - a life span. Who will  join me in this adventure? 
 
WIND, A BUTTERFLY WHISPER, A BUTTERFLY WISH, A BUTTERFLY
WINGS, A BUTTERFLY FLUTTER, A BAT GARDEN TEA FAIRIES