Posts Tagged: cockroaches

The Insect We Love to Hate

Catherine Chalmers hates cockroaches.

She said so at her presentation Wednesday night, Jan. 7, at UC Davis. The occasion:  “The Consilience of Art and Science centennial colloquium, sponsored by the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion experimental learning program. 

 

“We have an adversarial relationship. I essentially worked with the cockroach because I hate it.”

 

But as a multi-media artist (video, photography, sculpture and drawing), Chalmers  wants people to know that insects, including cockroaches, are part of the planet, whether we like them or not.

 

“If all the insects disappeared, our ecosystem would crash within a matter of months,” she said.

 

The New York-based artist worked with cockroaches for 10 years.  She reared them. She  posed them climbing, running, eating,  mating and laying eggs.  She “executed” them in the gas chamber, in the electric chair, burned them at the stake, and hung them.

 

But not really.  No animals were harmed in the making of her art. The burned-at-the-stake cockroach? The flames were real, but the cockroach strapped to the stake was reacting to an air current. The one engulfed in flames was a dead body. It had earlier died a natural death, she said.

 

Chalmers showed photographs of cockroaches she'd painted to resemble a bird of paradise, a ladybug and a bee. “Imposters," she said. "People tend to like an insect if it pollinates flowers.   And with spots and colors.”

 

She drew gasps from the audience when she showed a roach “trophy head," much like a hunter's deer trophy. Laughter erupted when a roach climbed the stem of a wine glass and then toppled into the wine.

 

For an hour and a half, Chalmers entertained, educated and informed her audience with videos titled  “Squish,” “Gas Chamber,” “Crawl Space” and “Safari.”

 

Some of her quotes:

• The American cockroach is not from America. Its origin is in Africa, like us.
• The cockroach followed us as we colonized the planet. It’s not to be found in the wild anymore; it lives in our homes.
• One of the problems we have with the cockroach is its aesthetics. It’s not our favorite character
• Cockroaches really like bananas
• The transformation from juvenile to adult--the molting stage--is beautiful.
• The female cockroach mates once and is pregnant for life. She's very particular about which male she chooses.
• Hatching is difficult to see. We had 180 egg cases in the nursery (a room she created). I saw only one hatching.
  

 

"I worked with cockroaches for 10 years, which was probably 10 years too long," Chalmers quipped.

 

So, what did she learn about roaches in those 10 years? She gained a deeper appreciation and respect for the insects.  "But if my home were infested, if the cockroaches were not caged, I'd be the first to call the exterminator."

 

The real reason why people hate roaches? "Because they invade our space," she said, "and we can't control them." 

 

"The more we throw at them, the more they come back."

 

Still, Chalmers said she'd much rather encounter a cockroach than a grizzly bear. One of her vidoes shows roaches swarming over a teddy bear in a nursery, a scene that  prompted a "Yecch!"  chorus.
 

Her next project?  Leafcutter ants.

 

"Ants are dominant," Chalmers said.  “They’re one of the dominate species in any ecosystem.”

Her newly created video, "We Rule," shows leafcutter ants cutting leaves and carrying them back to their nests. To add humor, she filmed them carrying leaves she'd previously  shaped into letters of the alphabet. One ant scurries across the screen carrying an "A," another a "B," and another, a "C."

 

"Ants rule," she said. 

 

Next stop: Costa Rica, where Chalmers will continue to work with leafcutter ants in her  multi-media art.

 

"I'm done with cockroaches," she said.

 

Note: Check out her work on her Web site at www.catherinechalmers.com.  You'll see the insect we love to hate--and perhaps gain a deeper appreciation and respect for it.  

At the Reception

AT THE RECEPTION--From left are entomologist Diane Ullman, associate dean of Undergraduate Academic Programs, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and co-director of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion experimental learning program; artist Catherine Chalmers; and UC Davis Department of Art faculty members Matthias Geiger and Darrin Martin. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Sex, Food Chains and Cockroaches

American humorist-entertainer Will Rogers said  "I never met a man I didn't like."

I wonder if he would have said the same thing about insects.

Oh, sure, he probably liked--and appreciated--the butterflies, the honey bees and the ladybugs.

But cockroaches? I bet not.

Cockroaches just don't give you that fuzzy-wuzzy-lovey-dovey feeling--unless you're another cockroach.

Enter Catherine Chalmers, a New York-based multi-media artist who centers much of her work on cockroaches, their place on the planet, and people's reaction to them.

Chalmers, who explores the lives of cockroaches and other creatures that  the general public disdains, will speak on “Sex, Food Chains and Cockroaches” from 6:30 to 8 p.m.,  Wednesday, Jan. 7 at the Wyatt Pavilion, University of California, Davis.

Her presentation is the second in a series of four lectures on “The Consilience of Art and Science,” a centennial colloquium sponsored by the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion experimental learning program. The lectures are free and open to the public. 

“Catherine Chalmers investigates the natural world, from food chains to insect sex, revealing new points of view about our place in the ecosystem,” said Art/Science Fusion co-director Diane Ullman, associate dean of Undergraduate Academic Programs, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and professor of entomology.

Chalmers specializes in photography, sculpture, drawing and video, preferring to let the subject matter dictate the particular media. She displays her art-science work throughout the country. The Boise (Idaho) Art Museum showcased her most recent show, “The American Cockroach.” She’s been featured in the New York Times, Kansas City Star,  The Idaho Statesman and others.

Chalmers possesses this incredible talent of combining humor with biology to make people think. She paints cockroaches to resemble other insects, camouflages them in garden settings, and even “executes” them, strapping one to an “electric chair” or “burning” another at the stake. You can see her videos on her Web site.

Chalmers  is quick to point out, however, that no animals are harmed in the making of her art. (Whew! For a minute there i thought the twitching cockroach was actually burning at the stake.)

Chalmers lives with her artist-husband in Rensselaerville, N.Y., where she buys, rears and poses insects for her art work. A native of San Mateo, she received a bachelor of science degree in engineering from Stanford University, and a master’s degree in painting from the Royal College of Art, London.

She said "American Cockroach" grew out of an earlier piece, "Food Chain," which shows animals mating, eating one another, or in the case of the praying mantis, both. (An insect's gotta do what an insect's gotta do.)

I told Catherine Chalmers she should expect a standing-room only crowd.

 "Sex, Food Chains and Cockroaches."

The title alone should draw folks in.

Maybe a few cockroaches, too.

Catherine Chalmers

THE ARTIST--Noted artist Catherine Chalmers will speak on "Sex, Food Chains and Cockroaches" from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 7 at the Wyatt Pavilion, UC Davis.

The Cockroach

THE COCKROACH--The cockroach, whether rain-drenched or not, is not one of the public's favorite insects. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)