Curatorial Text
AUDIO RECORDING OF TEXT
In this Exhibition we are hoping to explore the importance of insect diversity within our built environment. Despite being considered an urban space, London has an extremely diverse population of insects. The abundance of green spaces as well as gardens in the capital actually makes it more biodiverse than many places in the UK! This heightened variation compared to the British countryside is due to a lot of land in the countryside being used for commercial farming, where many of the native flowers, plants and trees are being cut down. Monoculture agriculture is also detrimental to species diversity.
We can learn from the incredible potential for diversity and cohabitation we see in insect communities and reflect that in our social environment, where having a lot of different opportunities and materials help communities flourish. This idea can be applied to so many different contexts, as we also see that diverse materials used in architecture create the buildings and spaces that respond best to our contemporary climate. Developing a London space that reflects this can look like introducing green spaces for housing and wildflower meadows for insects and other animals.
Insects are amazing at building houses out of found materials, and when their nest is damaged they repair it to protect and house their young and store resources for the future.
Some of the artworks here are representative of hives and insect houses, using materials creatively and transforming them into something new. We also want to look at the role of such species as symbols within cultural understanding. Insects can be used as an avenue to explore the natural world, but not a model to be replicated universally. They are a great way to encourage an exploration of other species living amongst us and how they make use of the space around us, especially in an urban landscape in constant transformation.