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Wisconsin
Academy Gallery
Madison WI USA Oct 7 - Oct 31, 2003 |
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| For the past four years, I have been creating installations composed of insects pinned directly to a wall in repeating patterns which reference both textiles and wallpaper. My early training was in textile design. Although very little of what I currently do involves cloth, my work is nonetheless informed by the textile tradition. In particular, I am inspired by pattern to which repetition is inherent. Thus the notion of infinitude is closely linked, for when does a pattern end? | ||||||||||||||||||
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The connection I have made between insects
and pattern is not arbitrary. Scientists have identified 950,000 insect
species, and the beetle (Coleoptera) population alone makes up one quarter
of the animal population. Presumably there are other species which have
yet to be identified or to evolve, thus one could believe that discovery
might continue to perpetuity.
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My work is dependent upon the supposition that there is a cultural understanding of pattern. That understanding provides a framework of a narrative. When a viewer enters one of my installations, he/she is greeted with something they think they know, that is, a patterned wallpaper which could be in anyone's home or office. However upon closer examination one discovers that it is entirely made up of insects. A tension is created by the beauty one observes in the pattern and the apprehension we feel toward insects. I know very few people who welcome insects into their home. In fact, we have a certain hysteria about them. Culturally insects are a sign of dirtiness and disease. Some of that hysteria is based upon fact. For example, the bubonic plague was spread by fleas which resided on rats. West Nile virus is spread by mosquitoes, and recently I read that cockroaches in a crowded apartment block in Hong Kong may have helped spread SARS. My work explores ideas of home and comfort. The Observation Room alludes to the unseen world of dust mites, germs and bacteria, both friendly and not. |
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| I was inspired to create these two particular patterns when I learned that the building which houses the Wisconsin Academy was formerly a clinic of some kind in which people were observed through two way mirrors. I wanted to do something that involved light and transparency hence the clear winged cicadas that make up the majority of the pattern. The circles composed of colourful grasshoppers appear to me as windows, thought bubbles or "bright ideas" that come of conversation and contemplation. | ||||||||||||||||||
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Gallery Stratford Stratford Ont Canada Jan 5 - Feb 16, 2003 |
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| Relic" refers to repeat patterned wallpapers associated with the William Morris and Liberty companies of the mid to late 19th century. These companies created wallpapers lush and abundant with flora and fauna. "Relic" is intended to cover four walls of a room no smaller than twelve feet square. Its repeating pattern is made up of real, exotic insects which are attached to the wall in three dimensional relief. The beauty and horror of so many insects will be experienced simultaneously. In a day when our very existence seems threatened, be it full scale war or bioterrorism. "Relic" is a poignant metaphor for the fragility of life, something that has become all too real. | ||||||||||||||||||
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North
Dakota Museum of Art
Grand Forks ND USA Nov 9, 2002- Jan 11, 2003 |
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“What was Once My House" focuses on the ideas of home and comfort. To date my installations have been situated in a single room. While they often suggest a domestic interior, they also exist in an ambiguous world without a particular context. In this work I created an “insect wallpaper” for rooms which correspond to those found in a house, particularly the house I grew up in. Within a gallery space, sectioned off by temporary walls, there is a “living room, dining room, kitchen, study, bathroom and bedrooms.” “What Was Once My House” is a considerably more ambitious project than any other I have undertaken. The idea is inspired by the recent sale of my family’s home of more than 30 years. Prior to sale an interior designer was hired to recommend colours that the interior of the house should be painted in order to update its look and make it appear more spacious. The designer selected colours with names such as Blue Willow, Apple Sauce Cake and Lions Mane. The old furniture was put into storage and was replaced with new. When I walked into the house, I barely recognized it. I certainly didn’t feel like I was home! While the structure was familiar, I felt confused, as if I was in some kind of “twilight zone”. It seemed as if 30 years of memories had been erased. The “home” within the gallery walls is painted the designer’s recommended colours, and the insects pinned upon them compose the “wallpaper.” Each room has a different and appropriate pattern related to the room’s function. The insects, once alive, can be associated with many things that relate to home, most obviously pests and a general sense of deterioration which is common in older homes. The life span of an insect is fleeting compared to our own. I see the insect patterns as telling a tale, symbolic of the thousands of memories and events that took place in the house over the years so quickly erased with a coat of paint. In addition furniture-like forms were created and placed in each room. For some time I have been considering an object which might inhabit the space, as the rooms have felt curiously empty despite the elaborate "wallpaper", or for the very fact that the wallpaper seems to suggest there should be something more. Just as the wallpaper is somewhat fanciful, the forms hint of a table or chair, yet are ambiguous enough so as not to reveal a particular function, an era or place. |
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Tom
Thomson Art Gallery
Owen Sound Canada Summer 2002 |
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Tusk
Gallery
Toronto Canada January 2 - Feb 2, 2002 |
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Eupholus Bennetti is an installation of more
than a thousand real insects (this is a site specific installation and
the number changes according to the venue) pinned directly to the wall
in a continuous pattern which mimics wallpaper. Eupholus Bennetti alludes
to the unseen world of dust mites, germs and bacteria, both friendly and
not. The beetle, Eupholus Bennetti, was chosen because its physical beauty
makes it non threatening.
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