Tucked away in a corner of the Natural History Museum is a small display by artist Tessa Farmer. Titled ‘Little Savages’, the piece is the culmination of a year’s work, in which the artist worked alongside the museum’s Entomology (insect) Department, focusing in particular on the parasitic wasps. These small creatures make the common garden wasp look positively harmless, as they habitually invade and lay their eggs inside flies, eventually killing them. In this display, Farmer presents some detailed drawings of the wasps, drawn from careful study using microscopes in the museum’s labs. The main feature, though, is an intricate stop-motion film, playing on a loop, which depicts a nightmarish fantasy where the wasps are anthropomorphised as daemon faeries that have come alive in the backrooms of the museum.

The film, created in collaboration with Sean Daniels, is quite amazing. The stop-motion adds a touch of reality that brings it worlds away from the shiny surfaces of a comparable Disney/Pixar film. The faeries pluck spikes from sea urchins to use as spears to attack other creatures, ganging up like tribal warriors. The film is so graphic, at points, that the exhibit even carries an advisory label for young visitors. It’s strangely compelling, and technically brilliant, with crisp, vibrant colours, a high-definition picture and a well-composed soundtrack.

This is a fairly small installation, but it’s worth seeking out, and clearly shows the value that artists can bring to museum.

Tessa Farmer: Little Savages is on at the Natural History Museum in London until 28 January 2008. Admission free.