Bug Boxes
Around the turn of the century, on a crisp fall day in the Forest Service land south of Grand Canyon National Park, I found a perfect sardine tin: rusty, relatively intact, weather-worn, evocative. The desert is dotted with little dry dumps left behind by roaming cowboys and sheepherders, rancers, farmers and pioneers. This sardine can was face-down in an ancient fire ring, just sitting there for me to hunt and gather. I picked up the tin and turned it over, and squatting inside, fitting neatly and terrifyingly, spread-eagle, holding tight, was a tarantula. I’m not proud of myself, but I could not stop from shrieking and frisbeeing the tin off into the woods. Dang it, now I have to go find it again… sure hope I didn’t hurt that horrifying spidermonster. 15 minutes later I found it, and the tarantula was gone. One of these tins here is that very one.
Bugs, bees, spiders - insects of all kinds all over the world are dying off in huge numbers. This is not a relief for those of us who get giant welts when bit by a mosquito… this is bad news for all of us everywhere. We should be paying attention. We broadly are not.
These tiny bug boxes are sacred spaces for the creatures who are amongst the earliest creatures suffering with the onset of our global climate catastrophe. I offer these, with apology, to that latter day desert hermit crab whose tin home I outright stole.
Bug Boxes; found and fabricated objects, beads, vintage costume jewelry, watch parts, petrified sharks teeth, fishing lure spoons, buttons, sequins, precious stones; on-going series