Insects are, and always have been, a constant source of interest and inspiration to me. A documentary about insects, and their potential impact upon the world, had a huge impact upon me as a child. The Hellstrom Chronicle detailed some of the differences between humanity and insects. The film itself was overly paranoid in tone and writing, however the images captured were truly extraordinary. I have yet to this day been unable to purchase a copy of the film to re-watch.
Since then, I have had an avid interest in the insect world. It is so different than that of the human world. They are perfect machines, and are often Uncanny in nature. For instance, the hive mind appearance of ants – for example, wherein they will all follow the same path from one place to another. This is caused by the ants leaving a pheromone trail, as described here. The lack of the ability of mankind in general to distinguish one worker ant, or bee drone, from another, makes them appear as vast armies of mindless dopplegangers, all being controlled by a hive mind.
The exoskeleton structure of many insects is Uncanny to me as well, as it is the opposite of our structure as humans. We are built from the bones up, whereas many insects wear their “bones” outside as an exoskeleton. Also, many of these insects shed their exoskeletons and grow new ones. Some, like cockroaches, also have the ability to regrow lost limbs.
The slug is a fairly Uncanny creature. It’s anatomy and mating habits are entirely inhuman, however there is something touching in the mating of the Leopard Slug. The double nature of its hermaphroditic mating is intriguing. Both slugs play the role of both male and female, and impregnate one another.
To many people, the very thought of finding a slug in an unexpected place, touching one, or – even worse – having it slither across them, makes their skin crawl. This, to me, made a slug a perfect creature for use in a music video about people having sex in public toilets. Finding a slug on the toilet seat would likely cause a similar repulsion in most people to accidentally entering a cubicle to find a “glory hole” or overhear people in the next booth having sex. In addition to this, the slug strikes me as the perfect choice for work involving projections. This will be discussed fully later.
I will include insects in my work, likely for most of my career as an artist, either as subject or inspiration. That is not to say that my work will revolve entirely around this kind of subject, but it is an area of profound interest to me.
[...] went through many iterations, and it became apparent that it was bizarrely tied to my own artistic focus. The collaboration has expanded above and beyond the original intent, as it has led to the [...]