INSECT ODYSSEY | Salisbury Museum.

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For this exhibition I was sent an old entomology book as inspiration for a new piece to be exhibited at the group exhibition Insect Odyssey. The exhibition was a celebration of insects in art and aimed to draw attention not only to the myriad physical and behavioural characteristics of insect populations but also to the historical, cultural and social associations they evoke.

 

Inspired by some of the articles in the book ‘Transactions of the Entomological Society of London – 1891’, I created a collection of paper insects, crawling out from inside the book trying to make an escape. I loved looking through the coloured plates and reading about the different species. This formed the starting point for my swarm, as I sought to bring the pages to life by creating full size paper versions of the real species found in the book.

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I carved the insect bodies from rolls of paper and then painted and cut their casings from the pages of the publication. The legs and antenna were made from wire and thread.  Using water colour allowed the text to remain visible - I wanted my insects to look convincing until more closely inspected.