Moth Migration

'Which would be cheaper, to post this to the US or to Australia?' The postman's eyes wandered blankly from my face to the unaddressed envelope in my hand, and then back, more baffled than before. 'Well, that depends...' He paused, taking in the envelope again, 'Where do you want to send it to?' I sensed that this wasn't so much a question as a way of filling the space that had been lingering in the conversation.

'Well, which one takes longer?' He shook his head the way a person does when there is a wasp on their ear and they don't want to make any sudden or abrupt movement. It was quickly becoming clear that I needed to share my reasons for asking if I were to get any sort of answer out of him. Explaining that contributions to an international exhibition could be sent to either New York or Australia I again requested information on travel time and cost and with a suddenly cleared countenance, he quickly responded that it cost the same and took just a day or two longer to Australia. Yes, he could have just said that at the beginning.

I decided that since all contributions arriving in NY would be bundled and forwarded to Australia, the carbon footprint of my particular eclipse (group of moths) could be halved by sending them directly down under. And so near the end of March, they were on their way.

The Moth migration project, of which they make up 6 of 20,000 plus moths created by 1078 individual artists and 113 organizations from 26 different countries, is a crowd-sourced exhibition founded by Brooklyn artist Hillary Lorenz in cooperation with a few Australian illustrators and printmakers.

Each artist is encouraged to submit regional species in black on white paper. Drawing, painting, and printing seem to be the most popular methods used in creating them. Mine are drawn and then copied individually by hand with a black fineliner. If I do something like this again they will definitely be printed. It seems that many of the contributors ended up doing their moths as class or group projects, an excellent idea to keep in mind for future endeavors.

 The moths arrive precut in order to aid in the installation.

   The Exhibition is being installed right now and will be open on 3 May 2019 (if you are looking at this in the future). If you are in Australia looking for something fun and interesting to do, it will run until 23 June 2019. I would have loved to see it in person but am enjoying seeing the videos and photos being posted in the Facebook Group.

The Locations are:
Bundaberg Regional Gallery, Bundaberg, Australia
Gympie Regional Gallery, Gympie, Australia


Today mine were opened! Here is the photo as they were being unpacked!

More details and photos are available on the Moth Migration website.
The moth I have contributed was originally drawn as part of a large series of moths and butterflies for the signs on a 'Schmetterlingserlebnisweg' in St. Thomas am Blassenstein. If you are in Austria and want to see the rest of those illustrations I encourage you to go take a short hike in the beautiful Naturpark Mühlviertl.


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* UPDATED:
A facebook friend found my moths in the installation and sent me a picture! Well done and thank you:)