Butterflies – Messages from Psyche – Philip Howse

Butterflies: Messages from Psyche explores the phenomena of visual perception, illusion and reality, unveiling the tangled web that insects weave as they employ colour and pattern to deceive their predators. Philip Howse explains how these living tapestries have been designed by evolution to protect insects from their principal predators, which include birds, lizards and monkeys. These insectivores, it is argued, detect their prey by perceiving small details of shape and colour rather than the whole picture of the insect. Many butterflies and moths have bizarre combinations of images on their wings and bodies which prompt comparison with the works of art of surrealists such as Magritte and Dali. They have a similar effect: to unsettle the way in which things are normally perceived: to confuse and shock. Many of the signs and symbols also resonate within the human psyche, surfacing in our art, architecture, stories and legends.