Smallness has no bearing on the measure of significance. Coleoptera, the order encompassing beetles, contains hundreds of thousands of species and represents roughly one quarter of all known animal species on Earth. Despite their extraordinary abundance and ecological importance, beetles often remain anonymous to us: encountered briefly, overlooked, or worse, smushed.Each beetle represented in this work is a resident of Pennsylvania. Sculpted in miniature from clay, with wire legs wrapped in thread, these specimen recreations begin as careful observations of their living counterparts before being transformed into personified characters. As articulated, posable puppets, they are given the opportunity to step beyond the classifications we impose upon them… to introduce themselves, assume identities, and reveal imagined inner lives. The puppets are constructed and costumed primarily from thrifted and repurposed materials, drawing inspiration from the stop-motion creatures of Ray Harryhausen and the fantastical anthropomorphism of J. J. Grandville’s nineteenth-century chromolithographic prints. Through photography, the beetles inhabit a world of absurdity, humor, joy, family, hard work, purpose, and connection. Their miniature dramas mirror experiences we recognize as our own, inviting connection with creatures whose lives ordinarily unfold beyond our attention. Beneath the whimsy lies the very real work these small creatures perform. Beetles are decomposers, pollinators, recyclers of nutrients, and participants in the intricate systems that sustain forests, fields, and soils. Their contributions are largely invisible, but the health of the world around us depends upon countless such lives and relationships.Now, at the end of their life’s work, the beetles gather around a table. They raise their glasses together in celebration: of friendship and purpose, of lives spent tending to a world much larger than themselves. This group who has seen the early foundation of Warwick Furnace now prepare to pass their ancient roles to another generation.Their work will continue, largely unnoticed…Their scale may be small. The significance of their contribution is not.
