Air

Amorales’s highly graphic works often appear to exist in an alternate reality, possessing an otherworldly quality that balances the fanciful with the macabre. Other dichotomies find expression in the blending of butterflies and moths, creatures of day and night, which are often either beloved or feared. 1 These rich evocations are amplified by the installation’s responsiveness to site, enhancing its ability to assume new associations each time it is exhibited. Since the work was conceived in 2007, its butterflies have inhabited a converted baroque church in Spain, a traditional Japanese house, a grand marble staircase in Milan, and the Soviet-era spaces of the Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art in Russia; they have also festooned historical paintings, adorned period interiors and occupied contemporary minimalist spaces. 2 In the Australian context, Amorales’s installation conjures recollections of the native bogong moth ( Agrotis infusa ), a species that once descended on Parliament House in Canberra in large numbers during their migration south to the Australian Alps each spring, the bright lights of Capital Hill disrupting their flight path. Once seen fluttering over the eucalypt green seats in the House of Representatives after an unexpected incursion, in recent years, the moths have suffered a catastrophic decline in numbers, estimated to be 99.5 per cent of the total population. 3 With its striking visual language and eerie beauty, Carlos Amorales’s Black Cloud invites us to confront the escalating devastation of invertebrate populations due to climate change, the butterflies’ charred wings a dire portent of things to come. NM 1 Some people experience lepidopterophobia, a fear of moths and butterflies. 2 These include: ‘Black Cloud’, Sala Verónicas, Murcia, Spain, 2009; Oku-Noto Triennale, Suzu, Japan, 2020; ‘The Cursed Hour’, Fondazione Pini, Milan, Italy, 2019; ‘Immortality’, 5th Ural Industrial Biennial, Ekaterinburg, Russia, 2019. 3 Harry Sadler, ‘“A 99.5% decline”: What caused Australia’s bogong moth catastrophe?’, The Guardian , 18 December 2021, <theguardian.com/ environment/2021/dec/18/a-995- decline-what-caused-australias- bogong-moth-catastrophe>, viewed June 2022. Carlos Amorales / Black Cloud 2007/2018 (installation views) 153 152 Invisible Invisible