Flora, fauna and insects

Curiosity cloud – mischer’traxler’s installation for Perrier-Jouët on view at the V&A during the London Design Festival – is a sister/brother project to the Ephemera installation – conceived for Design Miami 2014 and currently on view in Vienna – but this time focusing on insects, rather than the flora/fauna.

They both relate to the human relation to nature and want to show the fragility and also the impact we have on it.

“When Perrier Jouet asked us to develop the project for the V&A we thought it makes more sense to continue the story of Ephemera in a different and new way, rather than developing something completely different. Even though the installations react differently (the floral elements hide when you approach the objects, whilst the insects are getting nervous and start swirling around), they both try to visualise a moment in nature. When you want to look at insects in detail, they often fly away, so you have to keep a certain distance to them...” the Vienna-based duo explains.

The London installation comprises of 250 mouth-blown glass globes, created by crystal makers, Lobmeyr, hanging within the V&A’s famous Norfolk House Music Room. Within each globe, a variety of species of hand fabricated insects will flutter. Curiosity Cloud tickles all the senses in a truly interactive manner. From a distance, the glass globes shimmer and glisten in the light, and visitors were tantalised by the insects within. As you move closer, the insects react by flying faster within the globes, tapping against the glass as they elevate their wings. The aim is to explore the transience between nature and the Art Nouveau movement. Rather than creating their own fantasy insects, the duo felt it extremely important to use real insects which capture the true beauty of nature: twenty-five different species of newly discovered, endangered and everyday insects were intuitively selected based on colour, pattern, shape, wings etc.

In Vienna instead, a large oak table and two mirrors come alive with colourful metal plants and insects that represent current, extinct and rediscovered species. Representing nature’s lively, deferential relationship with mankind, plants rise up and move to their own choreography, if they “feel” they are not being watched. When someone approaches, they ‘hide’ and fold back into the table, reinventing a kinetic form of traditional marquetry. Similarly, digital leaves grow across the mirrors extending into 3D forms, but only as long as people are not too close. Otherwise they retract, leaving just a normal, reflective mirror.

mischer’traxler
supported by Perrier-Jouët

Curiosity cloud
Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road, London

until October 4, 2015
Ephemera
Objekt 42, Festivalzentrale
Absberggasse 27, Wien