Wings Becoming

羽化 (literally: wings becoming) is a Chinese Taoist term with a double meaning: “to transform into a butterfly” and “to die.” In this short 16mm film, these ideas of transformation and death are connected to a narrative of urban development and displacement. Set in a guerrilla garden patch tended by Chinese immigrants abutting the FDR Highway in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the film tracks the appearance and disappearance of a set of handmade paper butterflies. The paper butterflies are ritually set on fire, allowing them to cross the threshold into another world.