This set of work forms part of an interdisciplinary project in collaboration with the Agri/cultures project. 

The wider project explores the effect of genetic seed technologies on systems of agri/culture - investigating this in Spain and in South Africa as both these countries grow large amounts of Genetically Modified maize.

The visual and sensory component is based on research conducted on farms and in laboratories in South Africa as part of my PhD project. This project makes use of a multi-species approach. Through focusing on insects it unravels a story of agro-ecological change and the loss of social-ecological knowledges. The PhD tracks changing knowledge and relationships with agricultural insects.

The photographs are titled Moth-Eaten because they quite literally are eaten and decaying. The word moth-eaten can also mean no longer useful or neglected as were these insects found hidden away in a maize Research laboratory in South Africa.  In their decaying state, they tell a story of a changing agricultural research and development system. As pesticides and insect-resistant crops are increasingly used, fewer agricultural entomologists are employed to investigate complex interactions between species in fields. Similarly, as farmers begin to rely on pesticides and insect-resistant crops, knowledge about how to deal with unwanted insect presence becomes less used and often forgotten or a memory from a different time.