The Love Motel for Insects was a huge hit with the people that participated as they were able to learn valuable information about bugs and how they interact in nature. Each person got a hand-out with bugs labeled on the paper to determine which one was which and their role in the environment.
This workshop created a temporary “Love Motel for Insects” using insect attracting lights and bait to draw in local nocturnal creatures.
A feature of the “Freedom Festival” at Freedom Square, celebrating freedom of biodiversity in our devastated urban landscape!
MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST
Brandon Ballengée (American, born 1974) is a visual artist, biologist and environmental activist based in New York.l arthropods. Such creatures told us about the ecological health of local environments and data on encountered species will be recorded. To begin Brandon gave a talk about his ongoing series of Love Motel for Insect sculptures and the environmental necessity of insects followed by bug watching! In addition participants were encouraged to draw, photograph, and video record living specimens.
Ballengée creates transdisciplinary artworks inspired from his ecological field and laboratory research. Since 1996, a central investigation focus has been the occurrence of developmental deformities and population declines among amphibians. In 2001, he was nominated for membership into Sigma XI, the Scientific Research Society. In 2009, Ballengée and SK Sessions published “Explanation for Missing Limbs in Deformed Amphibians” in the Journal of Experimental Zoology and received international media attention from the BBC and others. This scientific study was the inspiration for the book Malamp: The Occurrence of Deformities in Amphibians (published by Arts Catalyst & Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK) and a solo exhibition at the Royal Institution of Great Brittain (London, England: 2010). Since 2009 he has continued his amphibian research as a visiting scientist at McGill University (Montréal, Canada). In 2011 he was awarded a conservation leadership fellowship from the National Audubon Society’s TogetherGreen Program (USA).
His art has been featured in several major US publications, including ARTnews, Art in America, The New York Times, New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Orion, Audubon Magazine and Sculpture. Internationally, it was also featured in Beaux Arts (France), Liberation (France), L’Oeil (France), The Observer (England), The Guardian (England), Financial Times (England), BBC News (England), D’Ars (Italy), Domenica (Italy), Il Venerdi (Italy), The Sunday Guardian: New Dehli (India) and others.