For the previous decade, the Barcelona-based visible artist Xavi Bou has devoted his work to revealing “the hidden fantastic thing about pure motion”. His preliminary focus was birds; now he’s moved on to bugs. In collaboration with US entomologist Adrian Smith he’s created an eye-popping collection that captures – by merging a number of frames right into a single picture – the rhythmic flutterings of butterflies and chaotic leaps of spittlebugs and treehoppers. In addition to their magnificence, Bou was struck by the essential position that bugs play in ecosystems, whilst their numbers plummet – it’s estimated that the biomass of flying insect species has decreased by 75% over the previous 27 years. “We have to transfer past seeing bugs as mere nuisances,” says Bou. “They’re fascinating, important creatures, and we owe them an amazing deal.”
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