This June, a "Love Motel for Insects" will arrive at various locations in Manhattan, first stop--Jim Kempner Fine Arts on June 8th. Insects and people alike will be drawn to these ultra-violet lights, and the artist/biologist Brandon Ballengée hopes, viewers will be enticed by observing the ecology of their own backyards. He notes that besides cockroaches and bedbugs, there isn't much known about what species of insects inhabit New York City, and hopes to begin cataloguing its insect diversity. The image above shows "Love Motel for Insects: Midtown Manhattan Study Unit," a mini test version of the sculptures installed on top of his studio building in midtown Manhattan. Native plants at the base of the unit help create a rooftop micro-habitat, part of his Audubon fellowship.
Photographs courtesy Brandon Ballengée and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York.
Photographs courtesy Brandon Ballengée and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York.
