The Ant and the Grasshopper
Guy Louden, The Ant and the Grasshopper, 2019, two-channel digital video, two-channel sound, looped.
Hardcore preppers yearn for societal collapse, revelling in the idea of vindictive violence.This artwork shows a Pelican case, a symbol of the prepper subculture, in an endlessly replayed computer-generated destruction. Presented with the slick technology of product photography, this destruction appears darkly attractive. At the same time, Aesop’s fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper is retold in a way that emphasises a malicious pleasure in others’ misfortune.
Produced for the exhibition Preppers at Fremantle Arts Centre.