Showing posts with label biodiversity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biodiversity. Show all posts

Monday, February 25, 2019

Beetles and Bugs Versus Oscar Fashion

Right: Emma Stone (in Louis Vuitton) arrives at the Academy Awards February 24, 2019 (detail of photo by Marl Ralston/AFP/Getty Images) and left: Apriona swainsoni, female by Ben Sale

Sometimes I watch the Oscars, but mainly for the pretty clothes. I went to bed after Spike Lee won for his screenplay, probably correct in my suspicion the show had peaked (with a joyous moment overdue by a few decades). I did enjoy the clothes, and in particular that several men stepped it up with colour, and capes and one truly spectacular skirt. Today this is my excuse to contrast the astonishing biodiversity of beetles with the beautiful textiles and couture on display. See the previous such posts: I really enjoyed bringing you the best in nudibranch Oscar fashion and bee biodiversity versus Oscar fashion before. The variation in bugs and beetles is staggering, and I hope you'll see they show great beauty, even if you're inclined to think of them as creepy crawlies.

Left: Lisa Bonet and Jason Momoa (detail of photograph: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images) and right: Cerambycidae from Senegal, male and female, shot by Insecte member ocis


Left: Helen Mirren arrives at the Academy Awards February 24, 2019 (Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images) and right: Omophoita via National Geographic
Left: Glenn Close at the 2019 Oscars on February 24, 2019 in Caroline Herrera and right: Golden Tortoise Beetle (via Wikipedia)
Left: Chris Evans, February 24, 2019 at the Academy Awards (Getty Images) and
right: the six-spotted tiger beetle (Cicindela sexguttata)
(courtesy Matt Bright/flickr CC)

Left: Michelle Yeoh wearing Ellie Saab at the February 24, 2019 Academy Awards (By Steve Granitz/WireImage) and left: Corythuca ciliata, the sycamore lace bug (via here)

Monday, February 29, 2016

Take the Diversity of Bees over Oscar Fashion

Naomi Watts dressed as Augochlorella aurata

Last year, I really enjoyed bringing you the best in nudibranch Oscar fashion. So, I thought this year I might try the bees. After all, bees have tremendous diversity (unlike Oscar nominees), though you may only be able to name the honeybee (which isn't even native to North America) and the bumblebee (and there are in fact several different bumblebees). The ecological health of pollinators is of great concern, but it's isn't all about honeybees. In any region, the native bees are often the most important pollinators and few are familiar with their incredible variety. So enjoy the great beauty and astounding colours of these bees, glam enough for the red carpet. Maybe you'll recognize some from the nearest garden.

Learn more about bees of this part of the world at Resonating Bodies. Check out the great Bee Tribes of the World from York University for a sense of the staggering variation in bees. For a wonderful collection of photos of specimen, follow the USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab on flickr.

You can also find my own artwork about the biodiversity of bees here and here. If you also make art about bees, let me know and check out this call for artists for an upcoming show about and for bees.

Alicia Vikander dressed as Xylocopa India, a yellow carpenter bee from India
Brie Larson dressed as Osmia chalybea
Rachel McAdams dressed as Augochlora buscki, a Puerto Rican bee
Charlize Theron's backless red dress mimics the female Centris errans from Bahamas
Cate Blanchet dressed as the very pretty, if not pleasant to other bees, nest parasite Thyreus wallacei of the Phillipines
Kerry Washington dressed as Isepeolus wagenknechti

Kate Winslet dressed as the all black leafcutter bee Megachile xylocopoides
Saoirse Ronan dressed as a small carpenter bee Ceratina mikmaqi



Friday, February 22, 2013

for the bees

One of the things I'm working on is an exhibit about the local biodiversity of bees. I've brought you art made by artists who collaborate with bees, like Hilary Berseth, and Aganetha Dyck. Since I have bees on the brain, today, I'll bring you more interesting bee projects.


K-abeilles Hotel for Bees, Muttersholtz, France, by: atelierd.org. Photo: Stephane Spach. Source: architizer.com



The K-abeilles Hotel for Bees, is a structure hut with shelter for people as well as micro-housings for wild bees in the outside hexagonal compartments which provide a variety of nesting materials, in Muttersholtz, France.


K-abeilles Hotel for Bees, Muttersholtz, France, by: atelierd.org. Photo: Stephane Spach. Source: architizer.com




The Microbial Home / 2011 - Peter Gal | Product designer | Amsterdam Source: petergal.com



This is but a small part of Peter Gal's vision for 'The Microbial Home', "a domestic ecosystem which tackles the issues of energy, lighting, cleaning, and human waste disposal, embodied in a series of different components." The 'Urban beehive' would be a bee habitat within the home to provide honey and wax as well as awareness of bees and their importance for the home owner.





The Microbial Home / 2011 - Peter Gal | Product designer | Amsterdam Source: petergal.com












A medical student in France in the early nineteenth-century, Dr. Louis Thomas Jerôme Auzoux (1797-1880), frustrated with the sparcity of anatomical models and the expense of wax, was inspired by papier-mâché puppet and doll-making techniques of the day. He developed his “Anatomie Clastique” approach making 'disectable' hardened paste paper models in separate parts which could be assembled and disassembled to see better understand the anatomy. (Read about his anatomical papier-mâché model factory here).


IMAGE: Detail from Penelope Stewart’s beeswax chamber at the Musée Barthète, inspired by the permanent collection. Photo courtesy of the artist. Source: ediblegeography.com via minouette on Pinterest

IMAGE: Detail from Penelope Stewart’s Apian Screen, via Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre. Photo courtesy of the artist. Source: ediblegeography.com via minouette on Pinterest





Canadian artist Penelope Stewart has made a number installation with beeswax including what she calls 'Sensory Architecture': immersive environments completed tiled with beeswax tiles, so the viewer in inside a sort of bespoke human beehive.

Similarly, German artist Wolfgang Laib used slabs of beeswax to construct a narrow, dim, sort of beeswax lined closet called Wachsraum at the Museum De Pont in the Netherlands.


Wolfgang Laib’s beeswax chambers: on the left is his 1992 Wachsraum at the Museum De Pont, and on the right is the cover of Wolfgang Laib – A Scented Journey, a booklet documenting the construction of a beeswax space in 1994, at the Henry Moore Foundation Studio in Halifax. Source: ediblegeography.com via minouette on Pinterest




I had made one linocut of bumblebee, when a conversation with local audio artist Sarah Peebles got me interested in making a whole series of prints highlighting how little our own native bees ressemble or sound like honey bees. Check out Reasonating Bodies. As part of this project about bee biodiversity, she's made a series of art installations including habitats for solitary bees, and listening stations so you can hear all the bee activity like what is shown below. I also really enjoyed the Resonating Bodies trading cards I got at Nuit Blanch at the Wychwood Barns a few years ago. There are several, complete with DNA barcodes, like the one shown below.





Resonating Bodies trading cards. Source: resonatingbodies.wordpress.com via minouette on Pinterest



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