Moth wings - ceramic

Jacqueline Spedding, documentation of ceramic wings from 2011 installation, Loess. Ceramic, specimen pins, screen-printed imagery,
burnt-out organic material. Photographed in the studio by Ona Janzen, 2012.

Moth wings - paper

Jacqueline Spedding, documentation of paper wings from 2011 installation, Loess. Japanese tissue paper, fine muslin, organic materials, antique specimen pins, powdered charcoal, screen-printed pottery tissue. Photographed in the studio by Ona Janzen, 2012.

In 2010, while I was at Cardiff School of Art & Design on international exchange,  I visited the National Museum of Wales entomology department. In the historic collections of moths many of the specimens had begun to deteriorate, their wings torn and their handwritten labels curling with age. Unlike their perfectly preserved cousins, I was struck by the materiality of these specimens and the poignancy of their faded beauty and dusty forms.

Over a series of visits, I  became interested in the specimen pins being replaced with modern stainless steel to prevent rust and contamination. This led me to research Victorian factories where woman and girls made the pins by hand, expertly knotting the nylon heads onto the blackened metal shafts. By incorporating these pins, the wings become imbued with layers of history - of the workers who made them and the small specimens they so emphatically hold down.

Some of the paper wings have been screen printed with drawings taken from scientific journals I found at the museum while others have enlarged handwritten text printed across the surface of the forms alluding to the camouflage markings of moth wings. The diagrammatic images refer to the systems we use to name and classify nature. In contrast, the handwritten script (taken from an archive of letters at the National Museum of Wales of the 19th century botanist, Eleanor Vachell, 1879-1948), is enlarged, stressing the materiality of the letters and the person who wrote them.

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