The Red Admiral
Major
Art, BA
Submission Type
Oral Presentation
Area of Study or Work
Art
Faculty Advisor
Carmen Lozar
Location
CNS Atrium
Start Date
4-11-2026 11:15 AM
End Date
4-11-2026 12:15 PM
Abstract
My piece The Red Admiral is a mixed-media installation piece consisting of materials like acrylic paint, glass, and string. This piece explores the theme of cultural dissonance that occurs when someone doesn’t identify with their country of birth while being emotionally tied to a country that’s not “their own.” It embodies the fragility of identity and the discomfort between being stuck in the middle of a country that you call your own and another that’s being imposed onto you as a part of your identity. With imagery such as the admiral butterfly, often confused as a monarch butterfly, the border between the U.S and Mexico, the pins signifying the geographical location of each side of its identity, and the different colored strings strangling and holding the butterfly in place, I touch on the subject of the meaning of home as something cultural, spiritual, or political. With this piece I first started by exploring an animal that could represent the feeling of having a split identity. The admiral butterfly is a butterfly native to Illinois but it’s often confused with the monarch butterfly that migrates to South America, due to its bright orange colored wings. To represent the tension of being pulled between two places I used different colored strings, the colors representing each country’s flag. The butterfly is also being entangled by these colored strings. I wanted to represent the feeling of being tied down and stuck. The main string is tied to a pin with a red flag near where the city of Chicago would be in reference to the border line and another to the state of Jalisco, Mexico. The pins represent the important geographical locations of this person’s life, with Chicago being marked as her first name and Jalisco being marked by her last name. Behind the butterfly, a black line made with acrylic paint marks the border between Mexico and the U.S. With these pieces of imagery together I wish to tell the viewer about the feeling of alienation created by unfamiliar homes.
The Red Admiral
CNS Atrium
My piece The Red Admiral is a mixed-media installation piece consisting of materials like acrylic paint, glass, and string. This piece explores the theme of cultural dissonance that occurs when someone doesn’t identify with their country of birth while being emotionally tied to a country that’s not “their own.” It embodies the fragility of identity and the discomfort between being stuck in the middle of a country that you call your own and another that’s being imposed onto you as a part of your identity. With imagery such as the admiral butterfly, often confused as a monarch butterfly, the border between the U.S and Mexico, the pins signifying the geographical location of each side of its identity, and the different colored strings strangling and holding the butterfly in place, I touch on the subject of the meaning of home as something cultural, spiritual, or political. With this piece I first started by exploring an animal that could represent the feeling of having a split identity. The admiral butterfly is a butterfly native to Illinois but it’s often confused with the monarch butterfly that migrates to South America, due to its bright orange colored wings. To represent the tension of being pulled between two places I used different colored strings, the colors representing each country’s flag. The butterfly is also being entangled by these colored strings. I wanted to represent the feeling of being tied down and stuck. The main string is tied to a pin with a red flag near where the city of Chicago would be in reference to the border line and another to the state of Jalisco, Mexico. The pins represent the important geographical locations of this person’s life, with Chicago being marked as her first name and Jalisco being marked by her last name. Behind the butterfly, a black line made with acrylic paint marks the border between Mexico and the U.S. With these pieces of imagery together I wish to tell the viewer about the feeling of alienation created by unfamiliar homes.