Having changed rainbows from a symbol of God’s promise after the flood into a symbol for men having sex with other men, LGBTQ activists might be making butterflies their next conquest.
A new sculpture in New York claims to honor the transgender community with a set of butterfly wings that the gender-confused may stand between while wishing to be other than what they are.
Artist Rubem Robierb made the 10-foot-high, 13-feet-wide pair of wings out of fiberglass, steel and concrete “in tribute to [the transgender community’s] strength and bravery.”
The sculpture, located in Tribeca Park, Lower Manhattan, is the latest in Robierb’s series of public sculptures called Dream Machine. “Place yourself between the wings, close your eyes and make a wish,” said Robierb. “Imagine yourself traveling to the place where your dreams will come true. This is a monument to the dreamers, for we are the ones who live and die making the impossible happen.”
The unveiling of the artwork honoring the transgender community – which is titled “Dandara” for a trans woman in Brazil called Dandara dos Santos who was murdered in 2017 – was attended by members of the LGBTQ community, artists, gallery owners and social-media influencers.
“In tribute to the strength and bravery of the Trans GNC Community, Dandara has an important message and meaning, ” Robierb said. “And I felt that New York City was a place to showcase this on a public scale.”
Peppermint, a former RuPaul’s Drag race contestant and trans activist, spoke at the unveiling of the sculpture.
“Hopefully,” Peppermint told WABC-TV, “this will be the beginning of other queer people, trans people, trans young girls, and gender non-conforming people, to have a space where they can come, and know that their dreams can be realized.”
