Celebrating Diversity
(Click on a thumbnail to view or read about the piece.)
Accepting our differences and cleaning up as we go forward.
This is an ongoing work, starting from my first year practicing as an artist in 1999, through success at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi, in 2000, to my first solo shows, Wollongong in 2001 and Hazlehurst in 2002.
I think insects appeal to me because they are about the biggest, most intricate set that I know of. I will probably make them for a long time to come, as their diversity appears almost infinite. There are still many species we don't have names for, and probably many we don't know exist.
They are quirky, transformative, display human characteristics (such as living in colonies and farming). They can live almost anywhere - land, water and air. If all the insects disappeared it is believed that we would live no more than a few months, for lack of all the almost unseen work they do - yet they could live on through the Armageddon that would wipe us out completely.
I use the diversity of the insect realm to picture our diversity, and the use of our redundant and waste technology to highlight our ecological problems, suggesting that these are two of the major issues stopping our progress.