Beautiful Bugs

Insects are the unexpected and wonder-inducing stars of In the Midnight Garden, an exhibit UW design studies professor Jennifer Angus created for the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery that is on display through July 10. Angus made patterns mimicking fabric and wallpaper using five thousand beetles, cicadas, grasshoppers, katydids, and other insects from her collection of thirty thousand that she has used for other art installations. None are endangered — yet. Angus hopes her work gets people thinking about that possibility if the insects’ habitat continues to disappear.

Published in the Spring 2016 issue