The Metamorphosis photographic works are shaped through
sustained attention to the intimate life of folded paper.
Rather than documenting the installation,
these photographs remain with light, surface and memory,
revealing fragile moments that might otherwise pass unnoticed.
Each image asks whether looking closely might itself become an act of remembrance.
PHANTOM AFFECTION
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
Embers of Emancipation
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
Never Forget
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
State of Being
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
Heart Sick
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
Fragments of Love
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
Wish You Were Here
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
Abject Grief
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
Paper Lace
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
Intersected
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
Traces of the Past
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
Traces of Light
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
Traces of Darknes
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
Identity
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
Bokeh dreams
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
Memory Road Trips
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
Edge of the World
Metamorphosis, 2022
Archival print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP
Image Size: 64 x 80 cm
COLLECTION NOTES
Metamorphosis explores memory through folding, repetition and accumulation.
Beginning with the simple gesture of folding one origami butterfly each week, the collection gradually expands into installations, photographs, films and artist books. Across these forms, repeated acts become material records of lived time.
Commenced: 2020
STATUS
→ Retained in the Artist Archive
→ Reserved for future retrospective exhibition
WORKS
• 2,444 individual butterflies
• Installation
• Photography
• Moving image
• Artist books
EXPLORE
→ Exhibition Enquiries
→ Publications
MATERIALS
Archival paper, Japanese folding techniques, handwritten texts, outdoor installation, archival pigment photography and moving image documentation.
METAMORPHOSIS: PHOTOGRAPHIC WORKS
The photographs do not document the installation.
They continue it.
Where the field gathers thousands of folded butterflies into a shared landscape, the camera remains with individual encounters. Folded edges, handwritten fragments, translucent papers and shifting light become places where memory quietly reveals itself.
Working at close range, the photographs transform paper into landscape. Creases become horizons, shadows become weather, and colour drifts between recognition and abstraction. The image is less concerned with describing the butterfly than with attending to the fragile evidence it carries.
Photography slows the gesture of folding.
Rather than moving through the installation, the viewer is invited to linger with a single fragment. Light, focus and surface become collaborators, allowing details to emerge, soften and disappear again. Like memory itself, these images resist permanence. They remain provisional, intimate and incomplete.
The photographs extend the language of Metamorphosis beyond installation. If the field records time through accumulation, these works explore how memory persists through fragments. Small moments that quietly carry the weight of a larger life.
They ask whether looking closely might itself become an act of remembrance.
Collection Legacy
Metamorphosis formed the foundation of Stephen Russell-Brett’s BA Honours in Visual Multimedia Arts (Cum Laude), completed at UNISA in 2025. The investigation also led to Metamorphosis of Memory: Unfolding Tomorrow’s Dialogue (2024), recipient of a Merit Award at the Luxembourg Art Prize.
Metamorphosis is part of Material Elegies, an ongoing practice exploring memory, transformation and the practice of attention through vulnerable materials.
Credits
Photography and videography:
Martin Short, Conrad Nel and Stephen Russell-Brett
© Stephen Russell-Brett, 2020
< Back to Metamorphosis Series