The Intruders, 2022
Glass case, antique entomology books, wasp nest, wormshells, crab claws, bones, insects, plant roots, clay
Commissioned for Insect Odyssey: Insects, books and the artistic Imagination, Salisbury Museum 2022. Curated by Prudence Maltby and Elisabeth Darby
Exhibited in Reimag(in)ing The Victorians, Djanogly Galley, Nottingham, 2023.
As Artist in Residence in the department of entomology at the Natural History Museum London, 2007, I became interested in the insect pests that pose a threat to the insect collections. A drawer of Hymenoptera reduced to dust by carpet beetle larvae, had been retained as a stark warning to curators to be ever vigilant. My intervention in NHM saw my sinister skeletal fairies as a new species, devastating the established order, causing chaos and cross pollination between the fastidiously ordered collections.
The Intruders imagines a neglected, insect damaged collection of entomology books reduced to a wasp habitat; wasps have pulverised the pages to create their intricate nest, cemented neatly between the books. Now however, the fairies have usurped the nest, enslaved the wasps and appropriated the habitat, disrupting the knowledge within and wreaking fantastic havoc .