Beetles and Camellias Exhibition

Artwork Category:

Artwork Title: 
Beetles and Camellias
Artwork Size: 
h:51cms x w:35.5 cms (unframed). h:70cms x w:53cms (framed.
Artwork description: 
I dried some red camellia flowers and preserved them in an egg box sarcophagus. One summer later I opened their tomb and there they lay, desiccated and paper dry yet still slightly waxen. I was given some large toy beetles and I have a preserved Victorian rhinoceros beetle specimen (possibly Augosoma centaurus, from Africa) so I decided to bring them all together, Low down in the drawing, a brown beetle from the earth crawls towards a dead flower. Higher up, a blue beetle from the sky reaches a vibrant, saturated living red camellia flower while overhead the rhinoceros beetle looks on. There is an interplay between which subject is living, dead, preserved, plastic, resin, real, contemporary, antique, past and present. It is all the same and yet different in the interconnected world of this drawing.
Artwork Group Image: 
Artwork Date: 
2016