paper tape, map, 2015 (during a residency program with Tentacles)

Calling Lost Brothers is a project which I aimed to visualize an animal’s unnoticed and unperceived territory. I am interested in the overlapping layers of human living space and that of animals in cities. I have been exploring the area I have been living in for a period of time, attempting to perceive it through different eyes. In my project, I asked ants to do so for me. Why? They have many eyes and are very nosy.

The project took place in an old  city hall and a University building which is now left empty and rarely occupied.

Screen shot from performance of Patt Podo inside the building with leafs and branches.

Whenever the building is left empty or abandon, most likely it would be taken over/ taken back by nature. In this case, ants, unnoticed by human, took over the space. I then track the ants back by putting sugar balls around the building, then tape the floor around ants trails.

The outcome of the project was exhibited as an installation which contained colored tape stuck on the floor following the ants’ trails, dust I collected from the ants’ food, a few magnifier glasses, a closed tank filled with sugar and a sign inviting visitors to call out to the ants. The main idea behind the project was directed towards the research of a dialogue and a linguistic relationship with the animals and inter-species or ethically correct boundaries are challenged.

 

 

 

I use tracing paper to create map of an overlapping area of human and ants. The left side page show the area of ants trails while the right side page is the building top side map. By putting these two pages of map on top of each other, the viewer will can see where ants trails appear in the building.

By following the color taped trails, I’m hoping that the viewers are led to explore the building through ants eyes(or nose).

 

This project is inspired by my noticing of cultural and life style changed at various levels of the natural and humanistic societies. I recognize that the human parameters are not the only measure of the world; every living being is an intelligent center that relates itself to the reality in a different way. The animal raises questions that human being is not use to understand: in the animal eyes, in the animal skin, with the animal partnership, man can acquire answers to the adaptive needs. The progressive consciousness of being a hybrid ecosystem, hosting bacteria and genes common to different animal species, has made human being more inclined to reconsider the other animal realities.