Voracious Appetites: Eating the Host™ is a traveling museum exhibit/installation with photography, paintings, video, sculpture, and community involvement. In a broad sense, Voracious Appetites explores the ways in which human consumption of limited resources affects the Earth
"I had just finished reading a book about how bark beetles destroyed New England forests. On a flight from Ohio to Colorado, I looked out the plane window, and noticed similarities between the beetle’s patterns and the miniature earth below.
When I arrived home, I started researching and was amazed to find human patterns that are strikingly similar to bark beetle patterns, Like beetles, humans have voracious appetites – But instead of trees, we are hungry for new things, for comfort, for immediacy, style, status, ease.
Bark beetles are really cool creatures and they are essential in a healthy forest. But when a forest is under stress from drought and warmer temperatures, the population of beetles increases. As they eat and tunnel under the bark they can kill the tree, and then the forest. The dead trees become a fuel source for forest fires. The beetle destroys not only its home, but itself.
"Looking out of the plane window, I wondered if humans weren’t doing the same."
When I arrived home, I started researching and was amazed to find human patterns that are strikingly similar to bark beetle patterns, Like beetles, humans have voracious appetites – But instead of trees, we are hungry for new things, for comfort, for immediacy, style, status, ease.
Bark beetles are really cool creatures and they are essential in a healthy forest. But when a forest is under stress from drought and warmer temperatures, the population of beetles increases. As they eat and tunnel under the bark they can kill the tree, and then the forest. The dead trees become a fuel source for forest fires. The beetle destroys not only its home, but itself.
"Looking out of the plane window, I wondered if humans weren’t doing the same."
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Am I burning carbon?
Patterns: |
Bark beetles are hungry for tree bark. Humans are hungry for convenience, variety, warm homes, iced drinks, hot showers, new outfits, hot meals, easy transportation. We've fallen into robotic patterns of consumption: It's easy to order from Amazon without thinking of the manufacturing process and the transportation. It's easy to take hot showers without thinking of coal mines or fracking sites.
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A method: |
Science Fiction writers have long used a tactic to breakthrough habitual thinking: They give the reader space to postpone judgment and suspend disbelief by changing the time, location, or character-species of the story. Taking readers away from what they "know" helps them tap into curiosity and hear the story's lessons more clearly.
“Voracious Appetites - Eating the Host™” uses this same tactic to tell the story of humans and our responsibility in climate change. |
A metaphor: |
In a warming climate, great swaths of trees have been consumed by bark beetles, followed by inevitable forest fires. We understand forest fires on a visceral level. Across the country, we experience the devastation of fire, feel the effects of smoke, recognize the loss. On an intuitive level, the endgame for the bark beetle is clear: Beetles that maintain the same voracious appetites when the forest is stressed, or out of balance, will likely destroy the forest and themselves.
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Through a fascinating array of photo pairs, Voracious Appetites - Eating the Host™ makes the connection between the voracious appetites of beetles and that of their human counterparts. The descriptions of the photo pairs provide concrete examples of how we, perhaps unconsciously, burn CO2 on a daily basis.
Elm Bark Beetle and Dubai
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Sculptural, visual displays, and interactive installations expand and emphasize the connection between human and beetle patterns.
The exhibit stresses the urgency of taking decisive steps towards a more conscious world and empowers individuals to change.
Dendroctonus Approximatus Beetle Gallery and Google Earth Neighborhood
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A book and video of the exhibit will be available.
MORE TO COME!