You know the day will be an unusual one when you sit down at your desk with your otherwise ordinary mug of coffee, open up your otherwise benign twitter-feed and discover that a caddisfly (a small insect belonging to the order Trichoptera and closely related to the butterfly) has surpassed your own skills in metal-smithing. Yes, you read me correctly. And there's more.
The larvae of this hairy, winged creature are aquatic and use silk excreted from their own salivary glands, to construct protective silk sheaths around themselves while they mature. Nevermind that the entire creative process takes place under or directly on top of streams, lakes and ponds; have you ever seen a human architect perform such a feat?
But back to metal-smithing. We all know that many artists are deeply curious about the natural world, incorporating nature's forms and patterns into their work and mimicking nature's propensity for mystery and the sublime. French artist Hubert Duprat goes further. Since the 1980s, Duprat has been working with caddisfly larvae. An avid naturalist and a practising conceptual sculptor, Duprat combined his fascination with larvae behavior and his own artistic vision.
He knew that caddisfly larvae incorporate grains of sand, particles of mineral or plant material, bits of fish bone and crustacean shell to their spun silk sheath (click on image at right to enlarge). He also knew that the larvae are remarkably adaptable, often incorporating other suitable materials that are introduced to their habitat. Additionally, the artist had observed prospectors panning for gold in the Ariège river in southwestern France and began imagining what it would look like if the caddisfly larvae were encased in sheaths of gold. Duprat asked himself, why not lend larvae materials, and see what they build?
The artist (at this point I'd call him an artist/scientist) collected a group of caddisfly larvae, brought them back to his studio, "gently removed" their natural cases and and then placed them in an aquarium filled with gold flecks, semi-precious and precious stones like turquoise, opal, lapis lazuli, coral, pearls, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds. As you can see from these somewhat startling images below, the larvae performed just as Duprat had imagined and hoped. See those clusters and patterns of color? All the larvae's doing.
(click images to enlarge)
The larvae developed normally in their bedazzled sheaths, which they simply shed once they entered fly state. Just in case your mind isn't blown yet, Duprat claims that in his observation of the creatures, a case built and then discarded by one insect when it evolved into its fly state, was sometimes recovered by another larvae, who re-purposed the case by adding to or altering its size and form.
Manipulative? No doubt. Imaginiative? Yes. Really effing cool? Yup. Humbling? Definitely.
(As you can see, two of these bedazzled sheaths have been shed. Click image to enlarge)
Comments