A lesser-known area of Martin Pierce’s work is the fictional world occupied by insect and humanoid bronze creatures. To better show these sculptures we are adding new pages to our site and will be creating a new collection page and eventually a payment portal.
Since childhood Martin has been fascinated by insects and birds and not just by their obvious beauty but by their ingenuity and dexterity. Wasps, butterflies, moths, and swallows are represented in our company’s door hardware and cabinet hardware collections. However, the scale of door hardware as well as the functional limitations relegate these forms to incidental turn pieces, thumb latches or cabinet pieces.
As Martin’s art work is not subject to the same restraints he is using this new freedom to re-imagine both the scale of humans to insects as well as their functional and social relationships.
In December 2021 Martin sourced a deceased aqua blue horned rhinoceros dung beetle from a New Mexico entomologist. Known affectionately to friends as Phanaeus Pilatei this particular insect is beautifully colored and powerfully built. The powerful front plate and horn is used as a soil digger that is as proportionately powerful as a bob-cat shovel or bulldozer blade. Alas, the beauty and mechanical dexterity of Phanaeus is rarely appreciated due to his diminutive size. In Martin’s sculptures and paintings he hopes to shine a light on these undervalued scarabs by portraying then as larger than life and by developing a story that he hopes will be captivating.
True size of Dung beetle 3/4”L x 1/2”H New Model for Dung Sculpture 10”L x 6”H Other Beetle Sculptures