Butterfly takes flight: the translocal circulation of creative practice

This article analyses the relationship between artistic practice and mobility through a focus on the translocal circulation of theatre. It works against the assumption that art and its creative practices are tied to particular contexts. Instead I suggest that examining translocal connection provides a framework through which to consider how practices of art-making are emplaced and differentiated, whilst also encompassing physical and imaginative movement. I demonstrate this argument by examining the writing, casting, and staging of the play M. Butterfly in New York City, London and Singapore. I analyse how these creative practices were related to translocal travel, but also demonstrate that such activities spilled beyond the performance to reorganise socio-cultural relations. As a result, my analysis views creativity as an interrelated set of artistic and social processes. This article thus extends contemporary geographical work on art and performance in two ways: first, by considering how artistic practices draw upon, and are influenced by, spatially extensive flows of people, finance and ideas; and second, by considering the creative effects of artworks as they circulate through different contexts.