Cornelia Hesse-Honegger

I am lucky to never have experienced the devastation brought on by war, natural disasters or nuclear accidents. I never want to. But I admit I am curious. I am afraid of feeling that eerie emptiness typically left behind in affected areas, yet part of me wonders what it must feel like… And here is an artist who does just that. Cornelia Hesse-Honegger is a scientific illustrator who has collected more than 16,000 insects near nuclear plants and fallout sites, searching for the effects of low-level radiation.

In terms of locations, I’ve visited 25, from Chernobyl to Three Mile Island to Cape de la Hague. I have collected a total of 16,367 insects. I started in 1968 in Zürich but at that time I collected very few true bugs, only the ones I intended to paint.

I first drew and painted malformed flies, Drosophila subobscura, during my work as a scientific illustrator at the scientific department of the Zoological Museum at the University of Zürich in 1967. The flies were mutated by adding the “poison” EMS to their food… I knew from then on what it meant to look at a deformed insect. I also knew what humans were capable of doing to nature.

In 1990, I had the chance to travel with a group of journalists and parliamentarians to Chernobyl. The visit to Polesskoje, 30 kilometers west of the exclusion zone, was impressive because it showed me what it means for people to be victims of such a disaster… The town gave a very depressing impression. No one had any flowers growing. The streets were washed with water twice a day. The quietness of the town… was frightening. There were no birds, no insects… We looked into the windows where things were left behind — tables full of food, dolls, books. The whole experience was for everybody very touching, very unnerving. We all knew that radioactivity made by man is one of the most evil and destructive inventions ever created.

Text sourced from The Morning News.