marianne observation

Looking through the images on the field museum’s page I was really struck by the colors and elaborate construction in both the exoskeletons  (and some wings too) of insects and some of the artifacts in the anthropology section dealing with the ways in which humans decorate themselves. 

I’m very interested in the construction of an outer shell or image that serves a protective purpose in some way but is also decorative. 

Humans lack the plumage and bright colors that a lot of animals have,  and i think that leads to part of human fascination with animals (but that’s a kind of different topic, isn’t it.)  Humans have an incredibly long history of self-decoration.  The decoration humans put on themselves often seems to be meant as a way to signify power, or attract the attention of a potential mate (perhaps through signifying power).  Animals too, most often males, use their colorfulness to attract the attention of potential mates.  Although I’m not certain that is the function of many bugs colorful exoskeletons,  I found them to be most reflective of the ways in which humans decorate themselves.  

I'm fascinated by the way in which certain elements in the coloring of the insect can be found in some of these human ways of self decoration  In the case of this beaded crown from Nigeria you can find the geometric shapes that are so prominent in the insect (the tropical weevil) 

the metallic jewel tones of the beetle (frog legged leaf beetle) are easily found in jewelry (this piece being the patiala necklace, done by cartier for maharaja bhupinder Singh in 1928)

i think that there are really interesting parallels that can be found between things in nature like insects and the way that people throughout history have decorated themselves, whether it be consciously or unconsciously referencing the things around them.