brooke hunter-lombardi’s work

brooke has been taken away by the silk worms and moths which her artistic work revolves around. the work manifests in different media as you can see on her blog.

she uses live silk worms and moths and is deeply concerned for them. the wild silk moth (bombyx mandarina) is extinct now. the domesticated silk moth (bombyx mori) still exists to create silk for the silk industry. the cocoons are made of silk. when they emerge from it as a moth the silk is ruined by enzymes so the cocoons are then boiled before emergence to preserve the silk. they have been genetically modified for commercial ends. subsequently silk moths can’t fly and they are not scared of stuff. the saddest thing is that they need humans to help them reproduce.