Jennifer Angus is a professor of textile design at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, yet as an artist her medium is insects. She composes patterns using thousands of insects, placing them in arrangements that suggest wallpaper and textiles. Angus is interested in the way pattern functions as a kind of language. Without written word, a pattern can identify one’s gender, ethnicity, position in a community or even marital status. In the oral story telling tradition, a pattern upon cloth is often the starting point for a very tall tale.

During this lecture, Angus will discuss the mechanics and meaning of pattern and how it relates to her work and the exhibition at the MFA, ‘The Grasshopper and the Ant’ and Other Stories.

Free with Admission