About ‘Lacewing’

The images and video presented here are to be part of my multi-media installation which is slated to open in early April of 2023 at the Roswell Museum of Art in Roswell, New Mexico. The show will consist of approximately 40 sculptures created on found objects with LED string lights attached on the inside. They are then wrapped with stretched and glued tracing paper followed by windows of theater gels inserted into the paper. Most of the pieces rotate using small motors although some are stationary floor sculptures. The gallery will be lit with various colored lights which will project complementary and tertiary shadows onto the walls and floor. A musical composition created by myself and two collaborators will play from four speakers placed in the corners of the room.

Inspired by the ‘encounter’ which takes place when an abandoned object is found, deemed useless or simply out of date, followed by the process of transforming society’s detritus into something, hopefully, relevant, is deeply gratifying. There is a freedom, as these objects have previously been given form, which allows me to interact in unexpected and unpremeditated, perhaps, more playful and inventive ways.

One night several months ago, as I sat pondering various ideas for a title for this exhibition, my eyes rested on a dead Lacewing moth on the table in front of me. I have always been fascinated by these tiny, delicate insects with their light pale green bodies and their diaphanous, transparent wings. The structure of the wings closely resembles the sectional skeletons of my sculptures and so my title presented itself full blown through a direct encounter with nature. Lacewings, found almost all over the world, are of the insect order of Neuroptera and the insect family of Ithonidae. Beneficial garden predators, these beautiful moths kill and eat aphids, caterpillars, mealy bugs and scale and they also feed on nectar and honeydew.