conflicted thoughts

First and foremost I do not condone killing bugs for art, I am a vegetarian for goodness sake so please do not yell at me.
But I am very fascinated, intrigued, disgusted, and conflicted by the art of Jennifer Angus. Her undeniably gorgeous installations in which she creates elaborate and beautiful wall paper patterns with insect bodies are meticulous in their presentation, ambitious in their scale, and jaw dropping in their technique.



The feeling one must have experiencing the work. I would imagine there is much wonder in both the scale of her work and then to individually investigate the beauty of the insects carefully splayed onto the wall. I am sure most kids would be very excited to go see this gallery show.
But then the disgust and well plain old heebie jeebies sets in- that is a lot of bugs!



I like the idea of creating a domestic space through bugs as it is an interesting metaphor for our homes, our obsession with germs and cleanliness, our value in beauty, our culture in general. But then when most all the bug specimens come from another country the metaphor breaks down a little for me....



and I am still not so sure how I feel about all those dead bugs. If you feel conflicted as I do please read Jennifer's statement as she defends herself quite well. But I am still not convinced. Though she is being conscious of the fact that the bugs are not endangered, etc, and she is supporting indigenous people who make there livelihood off collecting ans selling these bugs...
I think as fascinating as the bugs are in her work they would be even more beautiful and fascinating in the rain forest were they belong.


Either way I do respect the skill and elaborate installation of Jennifer's work.

What do you all think? I am a bit afraid to ask knowing that I have opened a can of worms here (haha).