Bing Wright’s Photography Honors Dead Flies

THE DAILY PIC: At Paula Cooper, Wright crafts memorials for creatures that are always forgotten.

THE DAILY PIC (#1761): This is a small detail from a 152-inch scroll by Bing Wright, now on view in his solo show at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York. Wright’s entire scroll is filled with one dead and dismembered fly after another, all presented in extreme close-up on a white ground. Rather than being disgusting, Wright’s insects read as quite elegiac. They have been memorialized in a superbly crafted photographic object—and anything memorialized must be worthy of memory, no?

Thanks to Wright, I will never swat a fly with quite the insouciance I once did. (©Bing Wright, courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York)

For a full survey of past Daily Pics visit blakegopnik.com/archive.


Follow Artnet News on Facebook:


Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward.
Article topics