Palinurus

The insect becomes a face. The face extends into the forest.

Palinurus takes its visual cue from Papilio palinurus, the emerald swallowtail, whose dark wings are crossed by luminous green bands. The work does not reproduce the species literally. It transforms its emerald and black palette into a hybrid mask where butterfly, plant and human features meet.

Large dark eyes hold the centre of the composition. Veined wings, feather-like textures and long green extensions move outward across the burlap ground, while smaller black butterflies appear to settle along the structure. The result suggests an organism in transformation: part face, part insect and part growing branch.

The mask is formed in plaster and coloured by hand with professional cosmetics made for the human face. Makeup becomes sculptural material, fixing a practice usually associated with temporary transformation inside the shadow-box frame.