Since 1996, Ballengee has collaborated with scientists to create hybrid environmental art/ecological research projects. He is directly involved with field study research and uses the visual impact of science to engage the public in a discussion of broader environmental issues. Brandon states “My work attempts to blur the already ambiguous boundaries between environmental art and ecological research”. In an interview with art critic and environmental writer John Grande he states, “I believe art can change the way people see the world. Joseph Beuys bathed and swam in bogs to raise awareness about these sensitive ecosystems. Sharing Beuys fondness for mud, my work is created from information, species and other materials collected on field surveys or generated in biology laboratories. By bringing the public along, I try to bridge communities to local eco-systems and the great diversity of life found within them and also the causes of degradation.”

During Brandon’s residency he will install a large canvas screen into the sculpture park entitled Love Motel for Insects. The installation will use ultra violet lights on the enormous blank canvas to attract insects and this will create an opportunity for public interaction with nocturnal arthropods, which are not often seen. This is an ongoing project that has been installed across the world from tropical rain forests, inner city bus stops, Brownfield sites, Scottish Highlands, German city centres and Venetian boats as part of the Venice Biennial. At each site the insects arrive onto the canvas to reproduce and create pheromone paintings! Members of the public will be invited to participate in night walks to the Love Motel installation and Brandon will talk about our nocturnal insect friends as well as document the rich insect biodiversity in the landscape. The last weekend of the residency will culminate with an Insect Festival, which will exhibit the artwork and insect documentation over the two preceding two weeks.

Brandon’s artworks have been exhibited in Australia, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Recent solo exhibitions include, Nowhere Gallery (Milan), the Shrewsbury Museum (Shropshire, Charles Darwin’s birthplace), the Arsenal Gallery in Central Park (NYC), the Peabody Museum Of Natural History (Yale University). He has co-taught ecology art and neotropical evolution courses in Costa Rica for Hartwick College and he regularly conducts ecology/field biology/genetics and digital imagining workshops open to the general public at urban parks, wetlands, zoos and fish markets. In 2001 he was nominated for membership into Sigma XI, the Scientific Research Society. His lead authored article (with Dr. Stanley K Sessions), “Explanation for Missing Limbs in Deformed Amphibians” was published in 2009 in Journal of Experimental Zoology and received international media attention from the BBC and others.

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Check out a Youtube Clip of Brandon Ballengee at the 'Love Motel for Insects' Sculpture at Sculpture in the Parklands - July 2010

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