Crone

35mm film photograph, treated by hand, developed, scanned, and presented without digital editing.

You will receive a limited giclée print on acid free, archival quality, thick 310gsm cotton rag paper.

Size: 20cm x 30cm

Prints are unframed with a white border, signed and numbered, edition of 30.

Imagining the butterfly as crone, a final archetypal stage, this series considers the metaphor of metamorphosis and reflects upon whether shifts must involve utter destruction of past selves or whether they are expansions upon past selves. As some caterpillar cells are reorganised and others destroyed and rebuilt, ‘Crone’ asks us what must be deconstructed and shed in order to change, and what may be preserved, becoming threads of continuity, or archetypes co-existing simultaneously. To explore these questions, 35mm film photographs of butterflies were destroyed using alchemic processes, left wrapped for a number of weeks, then developed. The images that emerged show light leaks, melted emulsions, twilight colour washes, glowing edges, cellular and amorphous shapes, moments of ripping and tearing, and butterflies which appear alongside the other artefacts in the film.


$400.00

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I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the unceded lands and waters where I work and live, the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to Elders past, present, and future, and celebrate the ongoing art, storytelling, and cultural traditions that have been practised on this land by one of the oldest cultures on the planet.

 © 2025 - Melanie Skyers

Sign up to my mailing list

I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the unceded lands and waters where I work and live, the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to Elders past, present, and future, and celebrate the ongoing art, storytelling, and cultural traditions that have been practised on this land by one of the oldest cultures on the planet.

 © 2025 - Melanie Skyers

Sign up to my mailing list

I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the unceded lands and waters where I work and live, the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to Elders past, present, and future, and celebrate the ongoing art, storytelling, and cultural traditions that have been practised on this land by one of the oldest cultures on the planet.

 © 2025 - Melanie Skyers