Perhaps you have walked on a warm summer evening and seen fireflies dancing in the sky. There is something magical about the sight, and one wishes one could be part of the festivities and the mystery. Such a desire may seem childish, and I note that indeed children’s literature is populated with wonderful six legged characters such as the insect companions in James and the Giant Peach or the fabulously glamorous cockroach in La Cucharacha Martina. In fact, what is considered the first children’s story in the English language which was not a moral tale or fable is The Butterflies Ball and The Grasshoppers Feast by William Roscoe dating from 1808. In the Victorian era, both adults and children were introduced to the natural world through a large number of educational publications in which insects were anthropomorphized so as to have greater appeal to the general reading public. Voracious collecting of all manner of plant and wildlife was extremely popular at that time. However in this millennium, an adult’s worry of insects extends to serious diseases such as West Nile Virus, Lyme disease and malaria. In fact there is a certain hysteria, as insects culturally are a sign of dirtiness and disease.

My work is dependent upon the supposition that there is a cultural understanding of pattern. When viewers enter one of my installations, they are greeted with something they think they know, that is, a patterned wallpaper. A tension is created by the beauty one observes in the pattern and the apprehension we feel toward insects.

 

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