Inari Sandell: Butterfly Logic

Inari Sandell’s solo exhibition Butterfly Logic traces the flight paths of butterflies as a way toquestion how societies define “normal” cognition and movement. In the exhibition, a butterfly’s flight is set in dialogue with the diverse ways autistic minds and bodies navigate the world.

A butterfly’s flight may appear senseless to the human eye, yet its seemingly “erratic” pattern is an evolved strategy of survival. Sandell positions the butterfly as a figure of resistance to normative expectations of bodies and minds, proposing that divergent ways of moving and thinking form their own coherent logics—queer, intelligent, and wholly worthy in their difference.

The work was originally produced for the 2024 exhibition programme at the Fundació Joan Miró museum’s Espai 13 gallery in Barcelona. The artist’s work has been supported by Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Fundació Joan Miró, Arts Promotion Centre Finland and Frame Contemporary Art Finland.

On Butterfly Logic (2024). Image: Inari Sandell

BIO, english

Inari Sandell (b. 1991) is a Helsinki-based visual artist who works with image, space and material in a multidisciplinary way. Central to their practice is a personal and research-based engagement with themes related to neurodiversity. Sandell graduated with a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree from Uniarts Helsinki’s Academy of Fine Arts in 2023. Their work has been exhibited internationally at a variety of museums and galleries, including Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, UKS in Oslo, Hafnarborg Centre of Culture and Fine Art in Hafnarfjörður, the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, and Titanik in Turku.