@Roelephantom
ROOM (Butterfly Effect), Digital animation
This work features ROOM, a recurring character within my larger practice, reimagined with butterfly wings in place of ears. The wings reference migration, transformation, and sensitivity—qualities often embedded within immigrant experiences and diasporic identity. As a Puerto Rican artist living between Puerto Rico and Chicago, movement has become both a personal tradition and a condition of belonging. ROOM embodies this in-between state: a figure built to listen, absorb, and carry stories across environments.
The butterfly wings function as extensions of hearing rather than flight. They suggest how immigration heightens awareness—how sound, language, climate, and memory travel and transform through generations. The animation cycles through shifting colors, reflecting adaptation, emotional states, and the subtle changes that occur when culture is carried rather than rooted in a single place. These chromatic transitions echo the “butterfly effect,” where small movements ripple outward, shaping family narratives and communal identity over time.
ROOM’s body remains mechanical and quiet, emphasizing observation rather than speech. This silence mirrors my own process of learning through listening—especially in conversations with elders, where history is often fragmented, implied, or carried through tone rather than direct storytelling. The absence of a mouth reinforces the idea that understanding does not always require speaking; sometimes it requires patience, presence, and openness to change.
By merging a familiar symbol of migration with a character rooted in listening, this work reflects how home becomes something constructed through motion, memory, and shared experience. It honors immigration not as a singular journey, but as an ongoing, collective process—one that continues to shape how we see, hear, and relate to one another.
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What was the driving reason for your journey?
Job opportunities and a large presence of family members already in the Chicago area.
How has your immigration story impacted your relationship with your family and community? What does your family/community look and feel like?
A lot of missing pieces to a puzzle that’s helped guide the answers I search for in conversation with my elders. My community looks like a sprinkle of salt across the world. Some bunched together while others are left astray. Some bunched together, others left astray. Some aware of their own flavor, others disguised as sugar, yet all from the same origin.
What is your relationship to home and/or tradition and how has that changed?
Home is where the heart is. My relationship to home lives in motion. My personal tradition has become moving between Puerto Rico and Chicago—spending summers on the island and winters in the Midwest. Experiencing such extreme shifts in weather feels like a strange but meaningful way to stay connected to my community. Climate becomes a shared language, sparking conversations about resilience, adaptation, and belonging. Over time, home has become less about a fixed place and more about the people, stories, and rituals I carry with me across environments. 🦋