Jennifer Angus, "Still Lives," 2020. Bell jars with insects and plants.
At first glance and from a distance, the pattern on the wall resembles elegant, three-dimensional wallpaper in a stylized Fleur-de-lis pattern. It surrounds Wisconsin landscape artist Tom Uttech’s painting Nin Gassinsibingwe—Ojibwe for “I Wipe My Tears”—of swirling birds in a decimated pine forest at sunset, a work commissioned by the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend in 2019.
Step closer to the MOWA installation and you quickly realize the Fleur-de-lis figures are really large cicadas, four to a grouping and each facing outward, with wingtips touching to form the shapes. The spaces between the insect constructs hold small shelves with small bell jars filled with tableaus featuring beetles and other insects. Other insects flutter among the patterns and other insect-filled bell jars complete the exhibit.
Part entomology and part art, “Jennifer Angus: Still Lives” is remarkable, even for MOWA’s Surreal Gallery. But large tropical insects have become a hallmark for Angus, a Canadian-born artist who sees her work as having both an artistic and ecological dimensions. “I’m using insects to raise awareness of issues affecting our environment,” says Angus, a textile designer and professor in the design studies department of UW-Madison’s School of Human Ecology. “If we no longer had insects the human species wouldn’t last six weeks on this planet.”
Golden Triangle of Beetle Wings
Angus’ insect interests grew when she was doing research in Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle, where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet at the confluence of the Ruak and Mekong rivers. The textile designer, who was studying the use of colors and dyes, came across an ethnic garment decorated with beetle wings. “They were primarily made from elytra, which are the shiny, tough outer wings of the beetles,” she says. “ Various Southeast Asian ethnic groups use them in textile design, and even Victorian England had ‘beetle-wing embroidery.’ They are nature’s sequins,” she adds. “I have my own magpie tendencies and I like shiny things.”
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The large, colorful tropical insects began to find their way into other forms of Angus’ art, and soon it no longer mattered whether the individual insect had an attractive pattern on its wings or body. The use of interactive negative and positive space, similar to that highlighted in the MOWA exhibit, helped broaden the insect palette, so to speak, and the presence of insects themselves grew in their importance. “I found them beautiful, but these days their beauty comes second,” Angus says. “Working with material that once alive requires a specific level of respect. They are a vital link in the food chain, and these and other (ecological) issues take on new importance.”
The vast majority of insects Angus acquires have been farm-raised, thereby lessening the strain on the wild population. She uses and reuses them repeatedly in various installations until they start to break down. Then she will repair them if she can and discard them if they are no longer usable. “My rule is that you must have 6 legs to go up on the wall,” Angus says.
Despite the decimation of other species, insects reproduce at an amazingly prolific rate, surviving in the face of a world full or predators. That tendency helps ease the impact Angus’ art has on the environment. “Insects’ number one job is to procreate, and then they die,” the artist explains. “Some moths and butterflies don’t even have mouth parts because they’re not supposed to be eating, they’re supposed to be doing it.”
Despite precautions, Angus has been challenged by viewers who criticize her choice of resources. A viewer of an Angus exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum even accused her of “insecticide,” which prompted a panel discussion that included her and museum’s entomologist. But overall, l she sees her role—and that of her insects—as an abject lesson in ecology. “Insects are a renewable resource, although some are threatened due to loss of habitat,” she says. “What I am doing is trying to raise awareness. When people complain about my use of insects, I counter with, ‘Perhaps you should stop buying patio sets made of tropical wood.’
“But I am not interested in telling people what to think about my work,” the artist adds. “I am trying to create an experience of wonder, of which there are so few these days, and I want them to leave (my exhibit) thinking differently about insects.”
Jennifer Angus: Still Lives will be on display in MOWA’s Surreal Gallery through summer 2021.
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