Julia Oldham

Scuttle, 2006
Video
1:23 min.
Courtesy the artist

Julia Oldham is a MFA graduate from the University of Chicago. Her short videos explore behavior of insects and other invertebrates translating them into choreographed movements. Her playful presentation encourages self-reflection and is a careful mix of curiosity and cleverness.

“My work is an attempt to enter the mind of the invertebrate. I want to understand what it feels like to engage in their behaviors, movements and rituals. So I intensely study invertebrates: I read about them; I watch videos of their movements; I watch live creatures in the wild and in zoos; I talk to beekeepers and scientists. I contemplate the odd gestures of bugs and try to bring them into my world.”