Dream of the Butterfly

The story of the collection was inspired by a phrase, Dream of the Butterfly written by Zhuang Zhou.

The Butterfly phrase addresses the reincarnation through his meditation, who the essential ego was; Zhuang Zhou, himself, or the butterfly.

With his philosophy that nature and man coexist in the circle of life, I wanted to design the reinterpreted nature.

In his Phenomenology of Nature, Goethe said: ‘the straight line does not exist in nature’.

Though textures from nature seem like the opposite against silhouettes, volumes, and materials designed, I wanted to create the synthesis with compatible harmony.

To create the artificial nature, living things or geometrical textures such as pearl oysters, animal skins, a bark of a tree, tree ring, and stones were designed with animals and insects by folding objects and hand-crafted materials.

Dream of the Butterfly collection tells the oneness and the harmony between nature and man with the designed nature.

Synopsis

Zhuang Zhou 莊周(BC 369~286) Philosopher or Daoist.

“Once upon a time, I, ZhuangZhou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither,

to all intents and purposes a butterfly.

I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself.

Soon I was awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again.

Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly,

or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.

Between a man and a butterfly, there is necessarily a barrier.

The transition is called Metempsychosis.”

_ Butterfly Phrase in Zhuang Zhi

Photographed by

Team Peter Stigter