Sympathy for a Lanternfly :(
Spotted lanternflies (Lycorma delicatula), archival water-based glue, paper
18” x 24”
2024

Co-created with Jasmine Gutbrod for Creature Conserve exhibit We All Live Here Together on view at Joan T Boghossian Gallery in the Providence Public Library.

This diptych engages with the often violent rhetoric used to describe invasive species. As spotted lanternflies become more prevalent in Rhode Island, we are faced with entomologist-approved directives to "kill on sight”. These drawings made with captured and preserved spotted lanternflies question our response to invasion within ecosystems. We see parallels between the demonization of invasive species, the aggression of kill-on-sight population control, and the harmful language circulating both human and non-human foreign bodies. Is species death a truly effective strategy for combating the effects of human-induced climate change? What version of the native ecosystem are we trying to protect? Who or what should we hold culpable for shifting landscapes? 

Lanternflies captured and preserved by Fraya Berg.







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