Insect Art: Hubert Duprat

22 Feb Insect Art: Hubert Duprat

While researching information for a completely different blog post subject, I discovered the French artist, Hubert Duprat.  I was immediately mesmerized.  One of my internal goals is to teach myself more about art.  Real art.  To know about artists today and what they are creating.  Before the end of 2013, I would love to own a present day piece of art.  Something I can pass down.  Something I love.  It doesn’t have to be big, it just needs to be special and have a soul.  I’ll know it when I see it.

Nevertheless, I saw this collection of Duprat’s entitled “Caddis”, and I was fascinated.  Caddisfly larvae live in streams and other fresh water sources, housing themselves in tubes they have created from items in their natural environment.  Using sand, pieces of shell, etc., the caddisfly, a close relative of the butterfly, uses silk to connect and upholster their protective tubes.   A naturalist at heart, Mr. Duprat experimented with the larvae, placing them in a home aqaurium with pieces of gold, gold rods, semi-precious, and precious stones.  They immediately went to work, creating this:

Hubert Duprat “Caddis”

Isn’s this incredibly beautiful?  Quite the collaboration between man and insect, yes?

Duprat describes himself in the following video as an “architect” laying the plans and watching them take shape.  In another article I read, he talked of puncturing the tubes at times, and placing new stones like opal, coral, diamonds, and rubies in the aquarium, so the larvae would “repair” the tube, and thus create something with more varied material.  He discusses the “Caddis” collection starting at 2:32. (although I enjoyed hearing about all of his work)

See the caddisfly larvae up close and personal “bejewelling” his home in the following video.  (My kids found this so interesting.)

I guess even insects like a little bedazzling, eh?

What do you think about Mr. Duprat’s concept?  Is it art created by an artist?  Or simply nature interrupted?

Wouldn’t these photos make a unique framed set on a wall?

Images courtesy of Jean-Luc Fournier