Veronika Geiger

The project Papilio io takes its starting point in a found common butterfly, with the latin name Papilio io and a poetry collection called 'Butterfly Valley - a requiem' a sonnet cycle by Inger Christensen, who's poems often makes use of mathematical structures and language rules. The poems reflect on how memories about the ones we've lost are constantly created, through our sensuous contact with the world around us. In the rapid transformations occurring in nature, butterflies have become a barometer for the degree of biodiversity, because they are very specialized creatures and therefore extremely sensitive to environmental shifts. As we witness these shifts, we also become confronted with what we are about to lose.

The images in this series are made with different techniques combing, classically captured photos, AI-generated images, collage and eventually analogue techniques in the final image production. Through these various processes I investigate themes of time in photography where the result is a series of hybrid butterflies, pointing to the ongoing transformation within the photographic medium itself and the eternal transformative processes in nature.

This series of images were printed in a colour darkroom in the Photolab at Kunstgiesserei St. Gallen, Switzerland, shown at ZHdK, Zürich, arranged by Katja Vaghi and Bern University.