Wonderwebs

Shane Waltener, who lives and works in London, has an extensive portfolio here. I think cross-breeding lace doilies with cobwebs is more than granny-chic meets natural history; it is genius. He cites both cobwebs and dreamcatchers when describing some of these needlework and crochet fantasies.






Auntie Peggy Has Departed 2003, mercerised cotton, audio equipment, 2 part looped soundtrack. Aldwych Tube Station, the Strand, London.


Showroom Doily 2004, knicker elastic, 350 x 350 x 300cm. Disused shoe factory, King's Cross, London.



A World Wide Web 2007 - shirring elastic, 25 sq. meters. Museum of Arts and Design, New York.


The 26,000 2003, nylon thread, 300 x 300cm. St Mary’s Churchyard, Museum of Garden History, London.


Chihuly Doily 1&2 2004, knicker elastic, each 270 x 350cm. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

I love that something so beautiful (though perhaps ephemeral) can be created in the medium of "knicker elastic".

(via The Jealous Curator)

The human-working-in-the-spiderweb-medium reminded me of the 'uninvited collaborations' mended spiderwebs of California and Finland based artist Nina Katchadourian. She searched for broken spider webs and repaired the damage as much as posible with (starched or glued) red thread. Day and day, the spiders rejected her repairs, leaving piles of red thread under their own re-repaired webs. She displayed her photographs of the webs with her repairs alongside the later rejected patches.


Mended Spiderweb #14 (Spoon Patch)
Cibachrome, 20 x 30 inches, 1998


Mended Spiderweb #8 (Fish Patch)
Cibachrome, 20 x 20 inches, 1998


Marketing Tips for Spiders
Cibachrome, 30 x 20 inches, 1998

See also suspended spiderwebs and feathers, Working with insects (& other animals) and collecting wunderkammer.

Collecting Wunderkammer

As someone who collects information, images and ideas about cabinets of curiosity, I had seen Boston artist Rosamond Purcell's marvellous recreation, with some artistic licence of 17th centuary Danish physian Olaus Wormius (or Ole Worm)'s wunderkammer, as depicted in text and engravings in the catalog of his Museum Wormianum.





Via Thombeau's new form is void blog, I found this great photo essay from Slate about Purcell's work. Many of her other projects have shared the wunderkammer's purpose of archiving the ephemeral, while straddling the art-science interface. She's documented specimens from natural history museums, collections of naturalists, but likewise human-made decaying artifacts and collections of all sorts.


Rosamond Purcell, The Uncurated Jar. From Finders, Keepers: Eight Collectors, 1992. Courtesy Rosamond Purcell.


Rosamond Purcell, Teeth Pulled by Peter the Great. From Finders, Keepers: Eight Collectors, 1992.

Apparently, Peter the Great was not only an avid keeper of his own wunderkammer, but a "self-proclaimed dentist".


Rosamond Purcell, Cleared and Stained Bat in Glycerine. From Illuminations: A Bestiary, with Stephen Jay Gould, 1986.

She's also created artifacts of her own. Like artists previously profiled, who collaborate with insects (including Hubert Duprat's work with caddis fly larvae, Hilary Berseth's work with bees and Aganetha Dyck's work with bees), she used termites (maintained by a biologist collaborator) to eat the pages of anatomical and architectural texts which then formed the basis of collage pieces.



Rosamond Purcell, With the Modern. From Bookworm, 2006.

These investigations of the worlds of the collectors, the collections, their idiosyncracies, the lost and forgotten, the decaying, and of course, of books and book arts, appeal to me on many levels. I must find more.

Working with the Insects (& other animals)

And while we are on the topic of insects (Were we? Oh dear!), how about an artists who collaborate with insects, rather than using their, um, corpses?





Duprat's aquatic caddis fly larvae, with cases incorporating gold, opal, and turquoise, among other materials. Photos Jean-Luc Fournier. via Cabinet and boyfrendo

French artist-naturalist Hubert Duprat collaborates with caddis fly larvae. Like their relatives the butterfly, they develop their wings while in silk cocoons, but they often incorporate random items for strength, like grains of sand, minerals, bits of plant, fish bone or shell- or random things they find lying around. Duprat carefully removes these, but provides them alternative media like gold spangles, pearls, semi- and precious stones. The larvae make their choices, using different available objects in their aquarium, or re-purpose previous blinged-out cocoons. Duprat traces his work to 19th century entomologists, who similarly tried introducing foreign objects to insects. The work straddles that interesting art-science divide.

American artist-beekeper Hilary Berseth works with bees. Using a framework of wire and wave, he coaxes or suggests to the colony how to construct their hives.


Programmed Hive #6, 2008
Honeybee comb on board mounted on hive super, wood, urethane foam, wire, metal, paint, UV lacquer
24 x 24 x 48 inches (61 x 61 x 121.9 cm)


Programmed Hive #7, 2008
Honeybee comb on board mounted on hive super, wood, urethane, foam, wire, metal, paint, UV lacquer
47.5 x 29 x 26.5 inches (120.7 x 73.7 x 67.3 cm)

Canadian artist Aganetha Dyck also works with bees; she is interested in, "ramifications all living beings would experience should honeybees disappear from earth". She leaves objects in hives to be covered in honeycomb - a different sort of collaboration (a little more like Duprat, perhaps).


Aganetha Dyck, Queen, Beework on figurine of Queen Elizabeth II, 2007, 15 x 10 x 8", Michael Gibson Gallery, London, Ontario.


Sports Night in Canada: Helmet 2000, helmet, honeycomb, Kelowna Art Gallery


Shoes altered by bees

She also works with her son Richard Dyck to produce digital scans, like this one, of hives:


You may also enjoy the Finch&Pea article about artist Elsabé Dixon's collaboration with moths.

If you are interested in artwork by animals, check out Ottawa's SAW gallery. Currently, they are showing an exhibition called Animal House: Works of Art Made by Animals billed as the “first ever critical overview of animal art.” The artists include dogs, cats, elephants, chimpanzees, gorillas and a turtle.


David Ferris Sela paints by the temple 2008 © David Ferris


Kira Ayn Varszegi Koopa at work 2007