Circle of Silk

It began with a curious designer wanting to know how silk was made. The result is a living installation, showing the mesmerizing and at the same time shocking ‘Circle of Silk’. Kumi Oda purchased moth eggs, hatched them, watched the worms produce their silk cocoons and emerge as moths that can neither eat nor fly. They are simply able to mate and produce new eggs after which they die – a wry result of thousands of years of breeding. These intriguing creatures exist only for us as tiny silk production plants. By documenting the whole 50 day cycle with dreamy images Oda shows the magic of it all but also begs the question: what have we done to these tiny creatures?