Brood XIX

So, I went off the deep end. It finally happened. I made a work about cicadas. Actually, that's not that strange, especially when you consider that my entire summer pretty much revolved around the derned things. At many points in late May, June and into July, I would go outside to talk on the phone and would be unable to hear the other person because the sound of millions of Brood XIX ("magicicadas") cicadas screeching love songs at one another was deafening. And then there was the time that I was talking to my mom on the front porch and within the span of 5-6 minutes, four cicadas had landed on me. One flew in my mouth as I was talking and others just buzzed around our heads. The sky would be black with them. It was one of the most vile, and yet beautiful things I'd ever seen.

Actually, when you actually take the time to pick one up (or snatch it out of the air) and look very carefully at it, they are quite beautiful creatures: those bright orange eyes and wing veins, the tiled armor and hot-rod like face. In reality, beyond their creepiness, they are quite aesthetically pleasing. I mean really...what's not to love?

I digress. 

With all that exposure, I couldn't HELP but make something about them. So the obvious choice was decorative ceramic tiles. I mean, right?! These tiles were constructed from raku clay. After a lot of math and playing with my collection of cicadas from the summer, I finally settled on an alternating pattern. 

This idea of alternations then carried into the layout of the tiles themselves. I opted for a continuous pattern that would ideally (I could create a billion more of these things) interlock with each other in a continuous rectangular line. This was rather ambitious and I ran out of time (only constructing three, but keeping a template handy should I choose to make more) with other things that required my attention.  

Intricate little critters, aren't they? 

Little baby cicada

I enjoyed making this piece. I had envisioned it for months and was happy to finally get it out of my head and into something tangible. I hope you enjoy it too.