Insects in Art during an Age of Environmental Turmoil

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Art and Communication
• Entomology

Background:

• Human activities are causing significant, self-destructive environmental changes.
• Existing awareness of environmental impact has not led to substantial behavioral shifts.
• Art offers a powerful medium to evoke emotions and influence behavior regarding environmental issues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To survey artworks featuring insects to assess the extent of their use in addressing anthropogenic environmental distress.
• To identify which insect groups artists select as subjects when depicting environmental issues.
• To analyze potential biases in artistic representations of environmental threats.

Main Methods:

• A survey of 73 artists' works featuring insects or their products was conducted.
• Artworks were categorized based on environmental distress themes, including habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution, human population, overharvesting, pollinator decline, and insect extermination.
• Categorizations were confirmed with 53 of the surveyed artists.

Main Results:

• 47% of surveyed artworks addressed habitat destruction or climate change.
• Certain environmental categories, such as overpopulation and overharvesting, were significantly underrepresented in the artworks.
• Hymenoptera were the most favored insect order (62%), potentially overshadowing more species-rich orders.

Conclusions:

• Art featuring insects can address environmental distress, but current trends show biases in topic and subject matter.
• Underrepresentation of critical issues like overpopulation and overharvesting limits the scope of environmental messaging in art.
• Recognizing and addressing these biases can help scientists and artists communicate more effectively about universal environmental importance.