Dec. 18 , 2008
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| Multi-media artist will speak on "Sex, Food Chains and Cockroaches" from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 7 in the Wyatt Pavilion. The lecture is free and open to the public. |
DAVIS—Nationally known multi-media artist Catherine Chalmers, who explores the lives of cockroaches and other creatures that the general public disdains, will speak on “Sex, Food Chains and Cockroaches” on Wednesday, Jan. 7 in the Main Theatre, Wright Hall, University of California, Davis.
Her presentation, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., is the second in a series of four lectures on “The Consilience of Art and Science,” a centennial colloquium sponsored by the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion experimental learning program. The lectures are free and open to the public.
“Catherine Chalmers investigates the natural world, from food chains to insect sex, revealing new points of view about our place in the ecosystem,” said Art/Science Fusion co-director Diane Ullman, associate dean of Undergraduate Academic Programs, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and professor of entomology.
Chalmers, who specializes in photography, sculpture, drawing and video, displays her art-science work throughout the country. The Boise (Idaho) Art Museum showcased her most recent show, “The American Cockroach.” She’s been featured in the New York Times, Kansas City Star, The Idaho Statesman and others.
Chalmers said she explores the question of what it is to be human and humankind’s relationship and reactions to the insect world. Combining humor and biology, she paints her cockroaches to resemble other insects, camouflages them in garden settings, and even “executes” them, strapping a cockroach to an “electric chair” or “burning” it at the stake.
Chalmers is quick to point out, however, that no animals are harmed in the making of her art.
Chalmers lives with her artist-husband in Rensselaerville, N.Y., where she buys, rears and poses insects for her art work. Some of her work appears on her Web site.
A native of San Mateo, she received a bachelor of science degree in engineering from Stanford University, and a master’s degree in painting from the Royal College of Art,
London.
"American Cockroach" grew out of an earlier piece, "Food Chain," which shows animals mating, eating one another, or in the case of the praying mantis, both.
E. O. Wilson’s book, “Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge,” helped inspire the colloquium, Ullman said.
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--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
