Natural Selection
Greg Edmondson
May 2, 2003 - August 3, 2003
The peppered moth is an often-cited example of natural selection. Before 1800, the color of the peppered moth ranged from light to dark. The speckled moth lived on the lichen that grew on the trees surrounding the cities of England. At the height of the Industrial Revolution, Sir Cyril Clarke from the University of Liverpool noticed that the soot produced in the local factories and home furnaces was killing the lichen and darkening the surface of the trees. The peppered moths that were darker became harder targets for hungry birds, while the lighter moths were eaten. In future generations of biston betularia, there was a predominance of darker moths, and the lighter colored ones became scarce. Since the 1950s, increased air pollution controls have dramatically reduced the air pollution and the lichen began to grow back, reversing the evolutionary preference of darker moths to once again favoring the lighter moth.
After talking with Edmondson about this, he quickly informed me that, recently, much speculation has arisen on Clarke's research- specifically, concerning the photographic images that produced to support his hypothesis. It appears that Clarke had mimicked the actual environment with the dead bodies of darker moths that he carefully pinned to the darker trees. These contrived scenarios were then presented in his findings as documentations of live moths in the natural environment. This act of creating images of the "true" from the "false" to reproduce the actual, I feel, most relates to Edmondson's new work in "Natural Selection."
In the creation of his installation "Natural Selection," Edmondson has integrated the two worlds of humans and insects by merging aspects of beauty, camouflage and patterns. He aptly illustrates our dependency on imitation or mimicry, surface aesthetics and the hierarchy of culture by mingling hand painted moths and butterflies with 1920s wallpaper. Edmondson calls into questions the intrinsic human need to develop and create superficial patterns in order to cover up our past through the creation of a new environment that we hope reflects a new self. The act of placing wallpaper in a dining room or formal living room is a means of displaying our aesthetic choices, and thus, our status in society, to our guest. Edmondson has selected insects that are indigenous to the United States, suggesting that this behavior is characteristic of Western culture.
Wallpaper dates back to the 1500s in England, France and China. Wallpaper was developed as a cheaper alternative to tapestry and paneling. In cooler climates the wallpaper helped with insulation of the user's home. Originally, wallpaper was printed with small wooden blocks on square paper with black ink and then hand painted with color to create a scene of the outside world. This labor-intensive method of wallpapering was, at first, only financially viable for the higher aristocrats in society, but soon came to the masses by the creation of cheaper methods of production. A roll of wallpaper initially began as 12 squares or more that were joined together, but in 1778 Louis XVI instituted a law that required the length of a wallpaper roll to be about 34 feet, which is also reflected in "Natural Selection's" 33 square paintings.
In the 1600s the squares were not attached directly to the wall. Instead, the squares were attached to material once they had dried, and then expertly tacked up to the wall. Edmondson's installation methods of pinning each piece to the wall refers both to the older method of tacking up the material to the walls, be it tapestry or wallpaper, and also to entomology- the scientific study of insects- by drawing on the practice of pinning insect specimens to prepared mounts. The double reference challenges the viewer to appreciate these works for their beauty and pattern, but also to study them, as an entomologist. Once the viewer is engaged in the individual paintings Edmondson directs our attention to the camouflage effect that is created by merging the two items together. The hand painted insects blend into the pattern of the wallpaper, creating a space that shifts back and forth between insect and wallpaper. This integration of subject and surface mimics the natural behavior of the insect in the wild and its use of its physical attributes to survive, but also relates to humankind's superficial means of conformity by participating in cultural hierarchies.
Butterflies and moths are known for using their patterns to display their genetic make up. Through their spots and color they communicate sexual orientation and survival techniques (whether they are toxic or bitter tasting if eaten, and the ability to blend into surroundings). Even the military has looked towards these insects to learn camouflage techniques for better defenses, hoping to copy decades of natural evolution enabling survival from the enemy. The camouflage pattern work is placed on the side of the wing that, in resting, is visible to the predator; if the insect rests with wings pulled together, then the disguisable pattern work will be on the underside of the wing, but if the butterfly rests with wings out flat, then the tops of the wings will be patterned after the environment and plant life of the vicinity. Butterflies have also, through evolution, mimicked the patterns of other species for survival. Species will mimic the Monarch so that predators will see them as poisonous.
We as humans use our environment to communicate who we are to the outside world. Whether it be through the house we live in and how we take care of it, through lawn decoration or landscaping, the wallpaper on our walls or the clothes that we wear, we are constantly sending information to other humans about who we are. It has been argued that through this communication, natural selection is employed by humans. We determine who we wish to mate with by the physical beauty and patterns that the other communicates. We also pattern ourselves after those who communicate most effectively what we want to be. We look to others to learn, then select and copy what they have done to create our own environment in their camouflage. Our ability to alter our surroundings, as well as ourselves, has enabled humans to artificially control their cultural aesthetics and social status to a degree that the insect can not.
The sculptural elements that Edmondson has included in this exhibition are a chrysalis and three larvae that have wallpaper patterns painted on them. This infers the continuation of natural selection in the human and insect population. Representing the three stages of life of the insects, camouflaged with man-made pattern work, Edmondson conflates the transitional stages of insect life with the fickle mutability of humanity.
Edmondson has taken two dissimilar worlds and integrated them, pointing out the underlying similarities, through his delicate balance between insects and wallpaper.
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