human damage to the insect world & its effect on butterfly & bee populations. What is the potential impact ?
Author: Distil Ennui | Post Date: 21-09-2023Human impact on insect populations, including bees and butterflies, has been a growing concern in recent years. Insects play a vital role in ecosystems as pollinators, decomposers, and as a food source for other animals. Bees and butterflies are two of the most well-known and studied insect groups, and their decline can have far-reaching consequences for ecosystems and food production.
'Plate 0813-021' from the series 'Transparency of a dream'
Two generations of butterflies documented underwater on one analogue 8x10 inch film plate.
Unique Chromogenic Print 160x160 cms on FujiCrystal archive paper, unmounted.
+ II Artist Proofs (each a differing size and execution).
Provenance: exhibition 'Death of the dream', 2017 London.
Encrypted NFC provenance tag, signature biometrics recorded in Catalogue Raisonné.
. Habitat Loss: One of the most significant factors contributing to the decline of bee and butterfly populations is habitat loss. Urbanisation, agriculture, and deforestation have resulted in the destruction and fragmentation of natural habitats where these insects live and forage. This loss of habitat reduces the availability of food and nesting sites.
. Pesticides: The use of pesticides, particularly neonicotinoids and other systemic insecticides, has been linked to declines in bee populations. These chemicals can harm bees by affecting their navigation, foraging abilities, and reproduction. Butterflies are also susceptible to pesticide exposure.
. Climate Change: Climate change can disrupt the life cycles of bees and butterflies. Warmer temperatures can affect the timing of flower blooming and emergence of insects, potentially leading to a mismatch between the availability of nectar and pollen and the need for pollinators.
. Disease and Parasites: Bees, in particular, are susceptible to diseases and parasites, such as Varroa mites. These pathogens can weaken bee colonies and contribute to population declines. Similar issues can affect butterflies, although they are less commonly studied in this regard.
. Monoculture Agriculture: Large-scale monoculture agriculture, where a single crop is grown over extensive areas, can limit the diversity of plants available to pollinators. Bees and butterflies rely on a variety of nectar and pollen sources, and monocultures can lead to nutritional stress and decreased forage options.
. Invasive Species: Invasive plants and insects can disrupt native ecosystems, sometimes outcompeting native species and reducing the availability of resources for native pollinators.
. Light Pollution: Artificial light at night can interfere with the behaviour of nocturnal insects, including some moths and butterflies, which may disrupt their mating and foraging patterns.
Our efforts to mitigate the negative impact on insect, bee and butterfly populations have been limited at best, but they include:
• Habitat Restoration: Creating and protecting natural habitats, such as wildflower meadows and native plant gardens, can provide essential forage and nesting sites for these insects.
• Reducing Pesticide Use: Implementing integrated pest management strategies and using fewer harmful pesticides can help protect pollinators.
• Climate Change Mitigation: Addressing climate change through reduced greenhouse gas emissions can indirectly benefit insect populations.
• Conservation Efforts: Many organisations and initiatives focus on conserving bee and butterfly species, such as monarch butterflies and various bee species, through research, education, and habitat restoration programs.
'Plate 0813-04' from the series 'Transparency of a dream'
Unique Chromogenic Print 160x127 cms on FujiCrystal archive paper, unmounted.
+ II Artist Proofs (each a differing size and execution).
Provenance: Encrypted NFC provenance tag, signature biometrics recorded in Catalogue Raisonné.
Bees are symbolic in art of order and immortality, cooperation and industry. In the ancient world, the bee was very important indeed, as the honey it produced was one of the few naturally occurring sweet substances and it was also a preservative & has antibacterial properties. The butterfly is widely significant in different cultures; symbolising love, regeneration, fortune, freedom, spirituality and death. The connection Greek Mythology draws between butterflies and the souls of those who have passed away is of particular interest to me.
In 2000 I started to breed the remarkable Morpho Peleides, Amathonte & Amathonto butterflies myself and through this process, a strong dialogue became apparent.
The Blue Morpho Butterfly (Morpho Peleides) is one of the largest butterflies in the world, with a wingspan reaching up to 16cms. These butterflies are found throughout Central and South America, and are the most common butterfly of the Morpho genus in Central America. Blue Morpho Butterflies are known for the spectacular blue colour on the topside of their wings, which is actually not due to a pigment, but the configuration of scales reflecting light in a way that produces an apparent iridescent blue colour. On the brown underside of their wings, there are yellow eyespots that are effective in warding off predators as they come in to land on the rainforest floor to feed.
The Blue Morpho Butterfly inhabits tropical rainforests, spending most of its time in the under canopy. Like most organisms that undergo metamorphosis, the Blue Morpho Butterfly has varying diet preferences at different life stages. The caterpillars munch on leaves from plants in the pea family. The adult butterflies sip, not chew, food via a proboscis, or elongated mouthpart. They do not drink flower nectar like some butterflies, but instead consume rotting fruits, fermented tree sap, fungi and even dead animals. Blue morphos detect food mostly using sensory apparatus on their appendages as opposed to using visual cues. Due to their short lifespan, Blue Morpho Butterflies spend most of their time eating and reproducing.
Unfortunately, Blue Morpho Butterflies experience direct mortality inflicted by collectors who harvest the butterflies for personal collections or to sell through the jewellery trade where in China & Asia there is a huge market for children's jewellery that accounts for vast numbers of these specimens meeting an unnatural end.
'Plate 0813-07' from the series 'Transparency of a dream'
Two generations of butterflies documented underwater on one analogue 8x10 inch film plate.
Unique Chromogenic Print 160x160 cms on FujiCrystal archive paper, unmounted.
+ II Artist Proofs (each a differing size and execution).
Provenance: exhibition 'Death of the dream', 2017 London.
Encrypted NFC provenance tag, signature biometrics recorded in Catalogue Raisonné.
My work has always inferred a need for a spiritual ranaisance with nature, this delicate creature undergoes an epic transition from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis and finally to a butterfly. A creature that unquestioningly embraces these changes, expending energy on a huge scale to make it happen. It is as if she thereby asks us to accept the changes in our lives as abidingly as she does. Imagining the whole of your life changing to such an extreme that you are unrecognisable from beginning to end offers great hope to me. The original ’Swarm' series explored these themes through the introduction of water, believing that drawing on water's transient and destructive nature exposes the fragility of life and the temporary nature of our existence since it acts as both nurturer and destroyer; having the power to cleanse and reinvent or to drown and disappear.
For me 'Swarm' explores the plight of this delicate and much coveted butterfly in a hyper-real and painterly aesthetic created through interacting with the water's mechanics to paint the subject in light. It acts as a reflection on life and mortality and how it is fleeting, beautiful and ultimately, tragic.
There are no changes made to the colours, no retouching or special effects applied to the image in post-production. From the very beginning I aim to set new parameters on research by restricting myself to the techniques of analog photography used since 1850; For this series using double exposure, superimposition and photomontage inspired by pioneers of photography such as Henry Peach Robinson, Édouard Baldus and Gustave Le Gray.
I started to further explore these themes in 2014 with a new body of work titled ’Transparency of a dream’. Following a particular conversation with a curator in which the reproducible capacity of photography - its force and its failing, was scrutinised. I was provoked by the notion that a painting is intrinsically more valuable than a photograph primarily because of its singular uniqueness. To counter this perception I present this series of one-off transparencies printed only as a single edition artwork in an attempt to challenge the ideas concerning the spiritual and economic valuation of artworks and to create an exciting tension between their individual present and relinquished, reproducible past.
'Mopho Amathonte 0219' from the series 'Swarm' dated 2009.
Chromogenic Print in III Editions of 10 prints; 40x40, 60x60 & 160x160cms on FujiCrystal archive paper, unmounted.
+ II Artist Proofs (each a differing size and execution).
Provenance: exhibition 'A beautiful announcement of death' 2012. PA & G Gallery, London. exhibition 'The house of the Nobleman' 2011. London.
Sold direct from the artists studio with Encrypted NFC provenance tag, signature biometrics recorded in Catalogue Raisonné.
These differ greatly from the original 'Swarm' works; here an original scene was captured on a single 8 x 10 inch film plate with a parent butterfly specimen; these plates were then annotated and stored for several months or years with some species until their children were born and matured, these siblings were then reshot over the top of the original 'parent' plates. Creating a dream like sensation of descendants dancing with one another; something in nature that never occurs. These artworks differed with their appearance of sheer fluttering delicacy, ghost like scenes enabled by creating time delayed sculptural scenes underwater with painstaking intricacy, each piece is not only a unique physical entity but embodies an unrepeatable aesthetic efflorescence; representing the singular, ghostly event of artistic consummation performed through painterly liquid mechanics.
Original like a sketch or painting, these one-off artworks reverse the conventional parameters of photographic works. Blurring the lines between sculpture, painting and photography. Existing only as a single piece of 8 x 10 inch acetate and one unique edition print.
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