Sympathy for a Lanternfly and :(

2024. Spotted lanternflies (Lycorma delicatula), archival water-based glue, paper. 18” x 24”

Created in collaboration with Reilly Blum. Part of the group exhibit We All Live Here Together, on view at the Joan T Boghossian Gallery in the Providence Public Library.

This diptych engages with the often violent rhetoric used to describe invasive species. As spotted lanternflies become more prevalent in the Northeastern United States, we are faced with entomologist-approved directives to "kill on sight”. These facetious drawings made with captured and preserved spotted lanternflies question our response to invasion within ecosystems. The artists highlight parallels between the demonization of invasive species, the aggression of kill-on-sight population control, and the harmful language circulating around both human and non-human foreign bodies. Is species death a truly effective strategy for combating the effects of human-induced climate change? What version of the native ecosystem are we trying to protect? Who or what should we hold culpable for shifting landscapes? Through these works, the artists propose a reframing of invasive species as a way to increase empathetic connection to the natural world.

Lanternflies captured by Fraya Berg.