German artist Evelyn Bracklow’s porcelain cups, saucers, teapots and dinner service is covered in ants. On some she’s painted a piece of food and then had her hand-painted black ants congregate around it. The effect is fascinating stuff and unsettling. We know that ants exist in abundance, but we don’t want to encounter one on our plate or food.
“(Painting the ants) totally made sense to me on an aesthetical level,” she says. “It was and still is a physical experience to paint or watch the ants move across objects. It’s this feeling of the supposed movements, of the slight shuddering that always gives way to admiration for the animal and its ever new formations.”
Bracklow says the ants summon feelings of “fear, disgust, fascination, and admiration”. The “ants symbolise all the stories that any formerly discarded piece of porcelain carries with it”.
You can see more of Eve Bracklow’s work on her site.
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