Bugs & Such

November 9 – January 11, 2004

Bugs own the air. Fish possess the lakes and streams. The two came together at the North Dakota Museum of Art in the exhibition Bugs & Such. Four artists–all women–filled the galleries with specimens retrieved from the fishing industry, bate suppliers, and companies that market specimens. Jennifer Angus of Milwaukee built a multi-room house and wall-paper each room with bugs. Catherine Chalmers explored the food chain with photography and screens videos of cockroach murders. Carol Hepper fashioned wall murals from fish skins, suggestive of gorgeous schools of fish in motion. Colette Hosmer showed everyday objects adorned with and comprised of perfectly preserved fish and frogs. This exhibition, while a magnet for children, embraced the concerns of the larger art world, of biologists, humanists, artists, philosophers and ordinary people who like to look at art.