Project

Living Colour Flies

Country

Netherlands

STARTEL is fascinated by life in all its manifestations, but also its irrevocable finitude. The fly has been a recurring element in their oeuvre for years. The virtually unstoppable urge to live of these insects that only have 7 days of life is fierce and intense. The fly also fits into an iconographic tradition in which the fly invariably represents (approaching) death. After years of working, breeding and experimenting with this fly, they are able to influence their behaviour so that it becomes part of their installations.

In the Living Color Flies installation, a ‘nursery’ chamber holds several generations of the Calliphora Vomitoria – the blue blowfly – with a white, illuminated surface. As they sustain themselves with various coloured substances during the Dutch Design Week, they leave a stunning vibrant patterns and colours over the surface, forming a drawing in a kind of time graph in organic disorder comparable to a Jackson Pollock. A small testament to their importance and beauty of their existence during their short natural lives. The visual art installation Living Colour Flies can be characterized as conceptual. STARTEL’s installations are the design of ideas. Ideas in which art, nature and science merges into a new era.

About STARTEL
STARTEL – consisting of the Dutch artist duo Jan Starken and Mark Schotel – is fascinated by life. They try in their conceptual installations to visualize the essence of life and its finitude.