Alexandra Haeseker

WINGSPAN 2022–23

Wood / ¼ inch thick styrene / stainless steel fixtures / Solar LED lamps

Three double-sided façade free-standing sculptures

180 x 240 x 8 cm

$20,000

About the Work

The public is encouraged to interact with the six sides of the three sculptures, becoming an Australian hybrid tropical butterfly-person! By enlarging the scale of the butterfly wings to a human size, the artist draws attention to how we are all part of a bigger identity tied to the tropical environment of Townsville. Alexandra Haeseker’s art installation work explores insect and plant life as ways to begin a dialogue on climate change, geographic awareness and our relationships to unique natural ecosystems.

About the Artist

Among Haeseker’s international museum installations and commissions are RED TIDE for the Coa Art Museum Portugal, 2014, which references nuclear fallout side-effects on marine life in oceans; SPAWN for the Ardel Museum, Bangkok, Thailand, 2015, which references how industrial development affects river systems; and NEBULA featured at Krakow International Triennial Poland, 2022, which depicts 200 moths attracted by city lights at nightfall.

At Castle Mills Contemporary Edinburgh Scotland, 2020, she installed THE BOTANIST’S DAUGHTER with 300 houseflies the size of open human hands among enlarged images of local flora, creating a ‘garden awareness experience’.

In 2022 she installed FLEURS DU MAL at The Vernon Public Art Gallery in British Columbia as a magnifying lens onto how insect and plant life are harbingers of how changes in climates of the region lead to forest fires and flooding...