Insecta - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

Tessa Farmer uses sculpture, drawing and stop
motion animation to investigate a species of
insect-sized skeleton fairies that have existed since
1998 (see ANTENNAE, issue 3, 'Insect Poetics' for
further information). Using materials such as plant roots,
insects, bones and taxidermied animals, her installations
reveal glimpses into the world of the fairies, and
investigate their ongoing evolution as their behaviour
becomes increasingly complex and sophisticated. Tessa
draws inspiration from the natural world, especially the
incredible, often alien world of insects.
At Pestival Tessa will be showing The Horned
Skullship which has been constructed from the skull of a
ram. As she explains:
“It flies thanks to the beetles, butterflies and
dragonflies harnessed to the bone. It contains a wasps' nest,
usurped by the fairies and now serving to hold various small
insects used for food, torture and experimentation. Larger
insects (unable to be wedged into the cells of the wasps'
nest) are imprisoned in the eye socket of the ram skull,
contained by a lattice of beetle legs and insect wings.
The Skullship is followed and surrounded by a
swarm of carnivorous insects preying upon the valuable
insect cargo carried by the ship. Most end up as prey
themselves, speared by the fairies with hedgehog spines or
caught in cobwebs stolen from spiders, now mobilised by the
fairies.”
In 2007 Tessa undertook a residency at The Natural
History Museum in London, where she worked in the
Entomology department, hoping to discover a context
for the fairies, and to find out more about their life cycle
and behaviour. She was drawn to the department of
Hymenoptera (bees, ants, wasps and sawflies) as stinging
social wasps have long been the fairies' arch-enemy.
Guided by entomologists Gavin Broad and Andrew
(Andy) Polaszek, both 'parasitic wasp men,' she became
5
THE HORNED
SKULLSHIP
It’s a warm summer day in London and artist Tessa Farmer and Antennae’s Editor Giovanni Aloi decided to spend the day
at the Natural History Museum in London talking parasitic wasps, art, museum collections and displays with entomologists
Gavin Broad and Andy Polaszek. How else would you spend one of the rare sunny days of London’s summer ?
Text by Tessa Farmer, Gavin Broad, Andy Polaszek and Giovanni Aloi
fascinated by parasitic wasps and their gloriously gory
life histories. Their seemingly sinister survival
mechanisms informed a new stage in the development
of the fairies.
Little Savages, the resulting exhibition of work
created during the residency, included a taxidermied
fox being ambushed by fairies. Some of the fairies had
mutated and were now half fairy/half parasitic wasp,
capable of laying their eggs in the fox and developing
inside it, as well as laying their eggs in many more
insects and animals (such as frogs and slugs).
Two years on, perpetually infected by their
enthusiasm and expertise, Tessa continues to visit the
department of Hymenoptera, making drawings of
specimens under the microscope and becoming
something of a parasite herself (although she hopes it's
more of a symbiotic relationship).
Giovanni Aloi met over lunch in early July with
Tessa, Andy Polaszek and Gavin Broad to find out
more about the relatively unknown world of parasitic
wasps and the scientists who study them. Appropriately
the discussion began with a wasp, although having
appeared from Gavin's pocket it was barely alive (and a
surprise to him). He offered it to Tessa, who refused,
but decided to stamp on it and put it out of its misery.
Andy quickly jumped in with a better solution, and
adeptly removed the wasp's head from its body with a
credit card. The wasp was no longer suffering and was
gladly accepted by Tessa, who was sure she could glue
the head back on later.
Giovanni: Gavin, there’s a fly on your lamb skewers.
Andy: I’d rather have a wasp on my skewer than a fly.
Last night I was looking at some of the flies I captured
with the Malaise trap in Mexico. They were really huge!
Tessa: Really?! Can I have them?