Franky Cruz is an artist creating an uncommon butterfly experience inside a gallery. In this episode, he talks about how Miami, and the art space known as Spinello Projects, became the laboratory for the exhibition project he titled Sistema.

Miami-based Cruz, who was born in the Dominican Republic, would rather talk about nature than culture. He mostly eschews technology, forgoing wifi in his live/work space. When Director Anthony Spinello learned of the artist’s insect research last fall, he invited Cruz to present a very unusual performance. To prepare for One-Fifth of An Ounce, (the weight of a butterfly), Cruz trained himself online to repair butterfly wings. After watching video tutorials by a master based in California, he mended the wings of four butterflies inside a greenhouse erected in the gallery. The process was tedious and exhausting, he says. Visitors to the exhibition Sistema witnessed the poetic life cycle of the Monarch butterfly—from egg to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to butterfly. Listen to this Fresh Talk episode to hear sounds of the artist’s everyday life in Miami and find out more about the inquisitive mind of Franky Cruz.