Ant Girls are Rolling On!
The term “Superorganism” is applied to ant colonies because the success of the species depends on its cooperative behavior, which then benefits the community. In that sense, the whole colony can be considered the organism, rather than the individual ant. When four artists decided to work collaboratively, choosing ants as their subject made all the sense in the world.
When leaf fragments have been cut, they are transported back to the colony to serve as a substrate on which to cultivate fungus, the food source of the colony. Leaf fragments, gripped in the ant’s mandibles, can be many times larger than the ants, looking like a large sail on a boat. Sometimes small nestmates with mandibles free, hitchhike on the leaves to protect the carrier from parasitic flies, only adding to the load.
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| Thanks to all of the honorary ANT Girls who helped adding the leaves. |
Colleen burned images of ants onto a screen which she and Becky printed onto three lengths of masa paper which are now ready for the insertion of leaf pieces.
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| Screen film detail of Viv's ant drawings/ In process scroll |
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| Silkscreened scrolls that then got stamped at MECA'a gorgeous print shop. |
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| Sketch of Atrium Gallery install of Ant scrolls based on AG talks. |
All for One and One for All
Who can guess the origin of this?? HINT: Tous pour un, un pour tous
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