Christopher Marley Bugs

Christoper Marley was on CBS Sunday Morning today talking about his bug specimens.  His work consists of beautifully spread and framed specimens which are culled from rainforests.  Apparently he has his own relationship with collectors who are constantly on the lookout  for beautiful specimens.  I particularly like his photographs of beetles which are compositions many different specimens — the diversity of form and color really highlights how absurd it is that these things are real.

It was nice that he made mention of something I frequently worry about — killing the bugs:

“The only way you can damage or really adversely affect an insect population is by destroying its habitat or destroying its host plant,” Marley said. “What we do is we go in and we cull a very few specimens. And that gives an economic incentive to people to preserve their habitat. They’re making a living off of the standing rainforest, instead of having to develop it to make a living. And so, you’re actually preserving the species.”

He writes more extensively about it here: http://www.formandpheromone.com/public_html/environmentaleffects.htm It’s a valid argument to be sure.  But I’m still getting increasingly weirded out that my art involves killing something.  I’ll get back to you about that….

Anyhow, here’s a photo of Marley’s work.  If you google him it won’t be hard to find more — he’s everywhere.  And while we do very different things, at the heart of both of them I think there is a shared awe of insects and we are both just trying to get people to take a closer look.