From the archives: You'll bug out when you see what's inside this cockroach
Elizabeth Goluch finds beauty in the little things — spiders and insects, to be specific
Name: Elizabeth Goluch
Hometown: Halifax
Artspots appearance: 2005
The story:
Diamonds are forever. So are cockroaches.
And to Elizabeth Goluch, the latter is especially precious.
Goluch is a metalsmith, and she's arguably best known for making sculpture and jewlery inspired by the ordinary insects that creep and crawl in your backyard.
Her dragonflies and moths, cicadas and bumblebees — and yes, even cockroaches — are supersized, often stretching 10 inches from antennae to stinger, and crafted from precious metals and gems.
Bugs, as she explains in this Artspots clip, have been a lifelong obsession.
"I think if I had I think if I had known there was such a job as being an entomologist, I could have gone that direction," she says in the video.
Instead, she studied art at NSCAD — and while her metallic creatures are, as she says, "true to life," there's plenty of artistic license involved.
In the video, you'll get a closer look at her sculpture "American Cockroach (The Never Ending Story)." Made of copper, sterling silver and gold, the articulated insect is a sort of Russian nesting doll of pestilence.
Says Goluch: "The cockroach is a perfect example of the most hated insect on the face of the Earth, I think. Cockroaches do go on forever, so what if the wings just keep opening up and you keep coming to the next cockroach?"
"I've always thought they were quite beautiful."
Memories from the shoot:
Writes the artist: "I remember that the crew spent a couple of days on the shoot with me and that they were great to work with."
"My favourite thing about the piece was the outing to Point Pleasant Park to look for insects. I seem to remember that one of the shots was of me observing a spider — I subsequently made four large spiders each having a secret compartment and details reflecting its habits."
What she's working on now:
Since November, a selection of Goluch's sculptures, entomological and otherwise, have been on display as part of the Artsci exhibition at Cape Breton University. The show features work that bridges art and science. It's on to February 2.
Writes Goluch: "Several new works in the exhibition are birds nests. It is the beginning of a series which I plan to continue to explore."
Simply called Nests, you can follow its progress on Instagram.