The Xerces Society I-III
Multimedia performances and installations
Created 1997-present

The Xerces Society, a contemporary work of performance and installation art, addresses the blurring intersections between art, science, and politics. The primary character - the one around whom much of the action circles - is Sir Samuel Cropia, a world-renowned lepidopterist known for his extreme dedication to the preservation and proliferation of butterflies. Sir Samuel Cropia's name makes reference to the cecropia moth, which is one of the largest moths found in North America, and is a member of the giant silk moth family. This moth was chosen as the reference, due to its physical characteristics, which include crescent moon shapes and "eye spots". The intention of The Xerces Society, whose title refers to a North American butterfly conservation society of a similar name, as well as to Xerces, the famed king of ancient Persia, as it enters its fourteenth year, is to investigate the complexities of fanaticism and ideology under the auspices of art and science.

click here to read: "Under Xerces Wings: Laleh Mehran's Laboratory Politics," by Lizzie Zucker Saltz, Art Papers, March/April 2005