Bugs in Art

Before developing ideas for what I want my overall summary to this placement to be I want to explore how other artists have used insects and bugs in art.  Starting with Louise Bourgeois who is well known for a large spider like sculptures.

Spider is a giant sculpture of an arachnid that stands with all 8 legs on the floor. The artwork is made of bronze and granite and was created in 1994. One of the first of many sculptures of spiders made by the artist, these sculptures are often very large and overwhelm a space, large enough to occupy the entire space of a room. Each of the legs is articulated in three sections made of straight rods of bronze. The lower parts of seven of the legs end in needle points where the sculpture meets the floor, while the eighth terminates in a small coil. The angularity of the thin legs and their different heights give the impression that the spider is crawling. The piece has the ability to bring fear the the viewer in a still object. the way the legs are sculpted make it feel life like and like its moving despite it being static.

Jennifer Angus

A Professor of Design Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jennifer Angus’s blends the world of interior design and fine art with these  installations. Creating beauty while also informing audiences of insects’ importance to the ecosystem. They pollinate food crops, control parasites and predators, produce silk, dyes, and honey, and decompose matter back into the soil. Like a historic artist-naturalist in the modern era, Angus collects her specimens in an ecologically sound manner, obtaining many from insect farms and reusing and repairing them over decades. By not altering the insects but surrounding them in colourful shapes and patterns enhances there beauty.