DANI MARTI’s video work Butterflyman will be featured in 50 Artists: 50 Years, a landmark exhibition celebrating five decades of artistic legacy at the University of Wollongong, running from 4 August til 10 December 2025.
The exhibition highlights the diversity and significance of the UOW Art Collection as part of the university’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
On Butterflyman, the artist writes:
“Filmed during my OZCO residency in NYC. I met and filmed Mark in 2010. I saw him again when I got back to NYC in 2012 — he didn’t look too good, and he had lost a lot of weight due to his addiction to meth while living with HIV. We organised a filming session. Three weeks later, I ran into him in the street, and he had developed skin lesions on his face. I asked him to do a second filming session.”
Marti chose to film his friend performing one of his more joyful passions: flagging — a routine commonly performed in gay clubs, inspired by Japanese fan dancing.
Marti’s work explores the intimacy and complexity of surface — how, as seen in Butterflyman, a person’s story can be literally written on their skin.