SPECIMAN:GENSIS

Portfolio Exhibition, Kalamazoo College, 2025

The flourishing inscriptions created by bark boring beetles, referred to as galleries, chronicles a sacred relationship between the forest and the insects. The life cycle of a newborn can be traced through the abstract markings left as they feed and facilitate the decomposition of dying trees.  

Since the late 19th c. the rise of lumber industries in the United States and deforestation has reduced the number of trees that are naturally dying and have greatly impacted populations of insects that naturally consume them, who in turn often resort to living trees for their survival. 

In retaliation to reclaim this resource, bark beetles have been known to cause death to vast areas of forest. As a natural defense, many trees produce a resinous material known as pitch to halt the spread of pathogens in response to injury. However, stressed trees are unable to defend themselves effectively, and the buildup of dead and dying trees allows for bark beetle populations to explode. These outbreaks occur as a direct response to climate stressors; drought being a major example, as if programmed into the environment as a living mechanism that fights to maintain a sense of balance. 

As climate change continues to increase the rate of extinctions within a variety of specimens, the fragility of our ecosystems has been documented throughout the history of Earth, which has survived several of these apocalyptic episodes. So did life in some forms, but it is never the same. 

*Gallery photos taken by Camille Stevens (Captured By Camille)