The last warm rays of sunshine make the dragonflies dance – and my heart skip a beat
Dragonflies have a short life and sometimes I find the remains of one of these fairy-like creatures. Then I am delighted when their delicate wings are still intact. They are tiny works of art – their wafer-thin weave is both fragile and amazingly stable. Light plays in them like in a miniature glass window.
I don’t even know how many dragonfly species there are in Central Europe – or here in the Weserbergland. The delicate damselflies enchant with their variety of colors and their light dance along the banks of streams and lakes, where their wings shimmer in the light. And the larger mosaic dragonflies impress with their powerful flight as they buzz through the air.
- Adult dragonflies do not hibernate. When the summer is over, the adults die.
- They only overwinter in the larval stage in streams, ponds and lakes. There they remain in the mud or between aquatic plants until they hatch the following spring or summer.
- Depending on the species, this larval stage takes one to three years. Some species need even longer before they develop into a finished dragonfly.
- Very rarely dragonflies survive a few cold days as adults (imago is the name given to the last stage of development in insects), but they do not survive frost.
Along the paths, I collect all the plant remains, buds, grasses and seeds, as well as the most diverse remnants of civilization – a piece of paper here, a piece of plastic there. There’s even candy wrappers lying around. In addition to the dragonfly wings, there are other remnants of summer: here is a potato beetle with pretty striped wing covers – with its elegant stripes, it is probably trying to distract from its huge appetite – longitudinal stripes are known to make you slim.
I also collect the one or other ladybug lifeless. The different types of ladybugs hibernate, but their lives also end quickly. The chip card doesn’t fit seamlessly into the dragonfly’s wing – nor should it – its branches of conductive tracks aren’t delicate enough for that. I like the contrast between the high-tech information carrier and the delicate natural wonder of the dragonfly’s wing.
Summer is full of memories of humming and buzzing, intoxicating flower scents, colors and warm sunshine. And then it’s over again. What remains is the joy of seeing it again. After all, the charm lies in change and transience. My works tell these changing stories. That is why not only real dragonfly wings are immortalized here, but also small found objects that tell of our everyday lives. The small blue control slip, for example, was lying somewhere in the landscape just like the processed grasses in the picture. Who knows who had enjoyed a walk at the place where it was found with their freshly acquired summer T-shirt – the sticker has unnoticedly detached itself from the garment and fluttered away to stick to the sidewalk. Its scratched surface suggests that other pedestrians ensured that the sticker stuck even more firmly. The turquoise blue of the note is reminiscent of the bright colors of the large mosaic dragonfly. And the little red scrap of candy paper – it belongs in the picture. This is how memories come together to form new stories that want to be told, contemplated, considered and witnessed. Because it is only when we look that they take place in the first place. Otherwise, as always, there is nothing of great significance in this collage.
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