…a guest blog by artist Alicia Hayden, originally published during Be Kind to Spiders Week 2026
I’ll be the first to admit that I am not the biggest fan of spiders.
Don’t get me wrong: I massively appreciate the value they play in our ecosystems – both preventing us from becoming drowned under a mountain of flies, and keeping our other species fed. However, I am – unfortunately – terrified of them. Seeing a House Spider in my bedroom will send me scampering out of there faster than it takes you to say ‘arachnophobia’; and although I am fully aware they are more scared of me, it really doesn’t feel like it when they’re standing their ground in my bedroom, and I’m holed up on the sofa in tears.
So, why then, have I created art of a spider?
Well, partially because of the very fear I feel towards spiders. And I’m not alone – a fear of spiders, on various levels, is in the top 10 fears for the UK population. But this fear prevents us from looking at this species in the same empathetic manner we might use to view other ‘more charismatic, less frightening’ species, such as Red Squirrels, or Mallard ducks.
By creating an artwork featuring a spider pride of place, I really want to challenge our judgement and perception of this species, and encourage us to see spiders a little differently.
But more than that, I wanted to focus on a particular species that I find absolutely fascinating – the Distinguished Jumping Spider (Attulus distinguendus).
The Distinguished Jumping Spider is – undeniably – adorable. And at its very largest only about 5mm long. They’re not really the most intimidating predator. They are a species in the jumping spider family, Salticidae, which is actually the largest family of spiders in the world. But despite this, there are only two sites in the UK which are home to the Distinguished Jumping Spider, and as both are brownfield sites, it’s regularly under threat from being lost forever.
When I first learnt about the Distinguished Jumping Spider some four years ago, it lodged itself in my brain as a species that could be a potential subject for wildlife artivism – the process of using art to communicate about science and threats facing our natural world in a meaningful and impactful way.
The warm weather in my studio has caused a small colony of Zebra Jumping Spiders (Salticus scenicus) to become more active around my windowsills – and it was while watching one recently, that the sparks in my brain all lit up. Jumping spiders are so powerful with their movement – able to jump up to 14 times their own body length – and a swing felt like a fun way of exploring this momentum.
Moreover, I wanted my artwork to be memorable and impactful, and in my opinion, one of the most effective ways of doing this is through interactive pieces.
When I think of artworks that have really stuck with me, I think of Layla Khoo’s 2019 installation piece ‘Change in Attitudes’. This piece was interactive: it consisted of black ceramic horns, one for each of the remaining black rhinos in the world – the viewer was told they could take a horn, as a memento for visiting the exhibition, but by doing this, they were agreeing to the principles of trophy hunting. Khoo asked that if you took a horn, you write your name beside the space it left behind – taking accountability for your actions. The piece was beautiful, clever, and unique – but as I walked around the installation, I distinctly remember all the hairs on my arms raising as I realised how many people had taken the horns. My goal from then on: to create pieces which had as much emotional impact as Khoo’s piece.
Creating a swing not only felt like a fun way of conveying the spiders’ movement, but also a valuable way for people to interact with the art and topic in a thought-provoking way. Swings are found across the country, including in brownfield sites. By placing my spider on a swing, I wanted to encourage the audience to think about coexistence – does it really have to be development vs nature, or is there a way of us joining the spider on the swing, moving together towards a future where development does not happen at the cost of the natural world.
As a multimedia artist, I enjoy moving between different artistic disciplines, however, biro remains a constant. I love using it to achieve realism and emotion – it feels the most effective due to its precision – and so it was the natural choice for my spider, and for the layers of brownfield sites.
Making the spider large was a case of making us consider making space for a species that is small and easy to overlook. If the Distinguished Jumping Spider was as big as a baby, and sat on swings in our parks, we couldn’t help but notice it – or indeed, notice the loss of it. Adding layers of detailed brownfield sites shows the tightrope this species walks between having a suitable habitat, and losing it to regeneration. A reminder that not all species need ancient woodlands, some of them need the urban jungles that have been forgotten by time.
Coexistence, or Jumping into Oblivion, reflects the unexplored charisma from this beautiful species – as well as showcasing the threats it faces from the loss of the two brownfield sites it relies on.
Author bio:
Alicia is an award-winning, multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, animator, photographer, and writer – specialising in wildlife and the natural world. In 2021, she won Wildlife Artist of the Year’s ‘Human Impact’ category with her wildlife artivism piece ‘When the Whale Sang’. Alicia has a degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford, a Masters degree in Wildlife Filmmaking, and is a Daler-Rowney Ambassador. Her work treads the line of science and artistry, allowing her to make playful, emotional, and impactful artworks about the natural world.
You can follow her online at @aliciahaydenwildlife, or check out her website www.aliciahayden.co.uk
Love Bugs…
Every species has a story worth telling – even the ones that might make us squirm!
However, with invertebrates making up around 98% of all animal life, it can be a tricky job trying to share them all. So, we created ‘Love Bugs’, a collection of fascinating life stories, which focuses on some of our most controversial or under-appreciated groups of invertebrates.
Think wasps, spiders, grasshoppers… even ladybirds!
Let us win you round, visit Love Bugs to find out more.