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The work deals both with the question of the ethical limits and dangers of scientific research (as in the film "The Fly"), the philosophical and sociological consequences of a transformation (as in Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"), and not least with the question of what actually distinguishes us humans from insects.

"Little Fly
Thy summers play,
My thoughtless hand
Has brush'd away.
Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?
For I dance
And drink & sing:
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.
If thought is life
And strength & breath:
And the want
Of thought is death;
Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die."

- William Blake (1794)

Brookhawk (Vault)

Fly Files

The core of the transformation, however, were the insects, which stared at the spectators with their huge fly eyes. Although they tried to hide behind masks and wigs (and thus appear somewhat human-like), they only felt comfortable when they were replaced by an artificially created creature.

But what they seemed to enjoy visibly was the great power to fly around, to change their size and position and thus to question the aesthetics of the whole work.

Faces of Transformation