Whilst browsing the latest copy of ‘Modern Painters‘ (I am a geeky art student now, don’t you know) I came across an artist who recently (in March and April this year) exhibited spiders in boxes at a gallery in Berlin. This idea interested me as I like wacky art. His name is Tomas Saraceno and he was interested in looking at and showing the expanding spatial structures of spiders’ webs. I find the installation quite beautiful and mesmerizing (if only I lived in Berlin, or had been visiting last Spring).
Spiderman
Saraceno placed translucent cubes in a darkened gallery space housing spiders’ webs built by different species of spiders. Some of the spiders, which are classed as social spiders, have a social instinct. Some of the webs were ‘artificial’ creations in that they were built by spiders building on top of older webs.
Saraceno, in coming up with this idea, was interested in social organization, cooperation, networks, communication, cohabitation and hybridity.
Spiders in a box
This is a real mixing of art and science. It is a study of the beauty of these semi-natural creations and a study of spider behaviour. Saraceno was also interested in how to apply the image these spiders’ webs creates to the notion of galaxy formations. So astrophysics pops it’s head up here too and I like physics too.
References
Esther Schipper, http://www.estherschipper.com/ABOUT [last accessed 16 August 2013]
Modern Painters, annual gallery issue 2013, August 2013