This place-specific installation focused on dendoctronus
rufipennis, a spruce bark beetle, which has decimated millions
of acres of Alaska’s Sitka Spruce forest. Like fire,
spruce bark beetles are part of the natural selection process,
a process that allows for rebirth and renewal by opening
up the forest canopy so that a new generation can thrive.
In Infestation, I recreated the dark, moist, aromatic home
of this quarter inch insect, with a main chamber and nine
perpendicular galleries. At the end of each gallery was a
circular light table containing a magnified image of a spruce
bark beetle; above each table nine freshly cut and peeled
spruce logs hung. Surrounding the light tables were four
tons of freshly cut spruce wood chips. In the center of the
chamber, stood a steel/glass, display case containing 2000
insects; the continuous eating sounds of these insects drifted
through the gallery.
