Exterior of Nancy Nicholas Hall in the evening, with lamps and windows glowing.
News & Events

Angus: Patterns & tensions of what we find acceptable

Through history and across cultures, insects have inspired artists and challenged viewers to shift their perspective. In this article published in Knowable magazine Professor Jennifer Angus work is explored as part of a larger conversation about the conflicting feelings people tend to have toward insects — we’re simultaneously fascinated by their strange biology and unfamiliar lifestyles and repulsed or frightened by their stingers, toxins and the diseases they may (or may not) carry. Not to mention their sheer scuttling, swarming numbers.

Angus continues to exploit that tension in her work. “A lot of people don’t like insects, but they’re OK with them when they’re put in patterns, because a pattern is ordering and it’s asserting a kind of control,” she says. “When I put them into something that’s sort of like a swarm, people find that very disturbing because that’s mimicking what they actually do in the wild.”


Source: Knowable magazine, written by Greg Miller 12.22.2021, reprinted in Smithsonian magazine 12.23.2021

Read the full article at: https://knowablemagazine.org/article/living-world/2021/alien-beauty-creepy-fascination-insect-art