A Big Bug’s Life
“Mom, can I feed the ant a piece of bread?” asks the little girl, who’s barely knee-high to a grasshopper . . . though the grasshopper here, admittedly, is no ordinary insect. And neither is the 700-pound, 25-foot ant, one of three poised to march across the lawn at the Arboretum of Los Angeles County.
Eleven gigantic insects are the stars of “David Rogers’ Big Bugs” exhibit, opening at the arboretum this week and continuing through Nov. 30. New York artist Rogers, who created the artworks out of wood, is jazzed about the little girl’s response to his ant sculpture. And the fact that he finds plastic cars and other evidence of kid-tampering stuck into the nooks and craniums of his giant sculptures clearly warms his heart.
“It’s the kids’ way of paying homage to the thing,” says the artist, who relishes the honest, natural reactions children have to his work.
With a tool belt around his waist and a bandanna covering his head, Rogers installed the bulky bugs over two sweltering days last week.
“That’s how you see a grasshopper in the real world,” he said after situating the 11-foot orthopteran in the deep grass on Tallac Knoll, a lush area above the arboretum’s waterfall. His simple designs emphasizing big eyes, protruding antennae and long legs are meant to be easy to recognize rather than detail-oriented.
“Instead of trying to imitate the look [of each insect], I imitated the engineering,” he says, and in doing so, he made some interesting discoveries.
“I marvel at Mother Nature’s redundancy. I noticed that the spiny things on a grasshopper are almost the identical shape of rose thorns, and they serve the same purpose--protection.”
In place in the natural settings throughout the arboretum gardens, the insects, made of all natural components, look like something out of “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” A 17-foot dragonfly lurking in a pool, a 3-foot spider in a web spanning 15 feet between two eucalyptus trees, and a 1,200-pound praying mantis are just a few of the oversized insects infesting the 127-acre botanic garden.
Appearances, however, can be deceiving. Ordinarily, one might be tempted to squash a praying mantis or the ominously named assassin bug (although in this case, one would need some help), but if there’s one thing visitors will learn from this exhibit, it’s that not all bugs are bad.
“People know they have [insects] and they want to get rid of them,” says Gwen Hartley, special projects manager at the arboretum. “Actually, beneficial insects allow you to maintain your garden without using chemicals.”
Sundays during the exhibit are designated Family Days at the arboretum, beginning this weekend. The botanical garden will be abuzz with workshops, entertainment and educational crafts for kids, and docent-led tours of the gardens are included in the arboretum’s regular admission price.
Highlights of opening weekend include two showings of Pasadena’s Kidspace Museum’s “It’s Good to Be an Ant,” a 30-minute production that premiered this summer at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre; magic by the Wacky Entomologist; and music by the percussion group the Beat Bugs (also performing the following three Sundays).
Educational crafts and classes are planned each week, each focusing on a different Big Bug.
It’s the first time an exhibit of this magnitude has been mounted at the arboretum. There’s been tension between Los Angeles County’s recreation-oriented parks department and the research/education-oriented arboretum since the parks department inherited the Arcadia facility after the dissolution of the County Department of Arboreta and Botanic Gardens nearly a decade ago. The “Big Bugs” exhibit appears to be the type of program that may appease both camps, with entertainment as well as educational value.
Arboretum an Oasis With Lush History
The garden is a lush oasis in the Southland’s urban sprawl, the historic center of what was the 46,000-acre Lucky Baldwin ranch in the mid-1800s. Several buildings constructed by Baldwin have been restored and are open to the public, including the Coach House, the Depot and the Queen Anne Cottage, also known as the “Fantasy Island” house because it was used in the opening credits of that TV show.
The arboretum has been a popular film location for decades: Johnny Weissmuller swung through the trees there as Tarzan in the 1940s, and it was also a site for scenes in “Road to Singapore” (1940) and “The African Queen” (1951).
The gardens are divided geographically, into the Australian, North and South American, Asiatic, African and Mediterranean gardens. The newly restored Herb Garden is not only home to Rogers’ 150-pound ladybug, but also a recently planted, butterfly-shaped corn maze. The maze should be full grown by October, when the arboretum plans the Big Bug-a-Boo Fest on Oct. 29, the last “Big Bug” bash before the exhibit moves on in November.
Since the initial exhibit at the Dallas Arboretum in 1994, the “Big Bug” sculptures have attracted swarms of visitors to botanical gardens across the country and are booked through 2003. Initially, says Rogers, who lives in his small studio in New York, the plan was to build the bugs on-site at the Dallas Arboretum--which would keep them. When Dallas insisted that Rogers retain ownership of the sculptures, it was actually a blessing.
“Out of necessity, I redesigned them to pack and move,” Rogers says. Not that it seemed all that convenient at the time: “When the show was over, I had to live with them. I have a strong attachment to my work--but I’m in a very small shop.”
Rogers and house guests did not live together for long. Word spread through the botanical community. Hartley saw the exhibit in 1995 and called Rogers in the hope that he would bring the sculptures to Los Angeles. He made like a grasshopper and leapt at the chance.
BE THERE
“David Rogers’ Big Bugs,” Arboretum of Los Angeles County, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia, through Nov. 30. Family Days every Sunday, 1-4 p.m. “It’s Good to Be an Ant,” this Sunday only, 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. Included in garden admission, $5; seniors and students $3; ages 5-7, $1. (626) 821-3222.
