The Ant and the Grasshopper
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cfe15adccce6eb8119a39beac607f98161db941a49de8ed84be8dbc8ef283ca3/FAC-Preppers-18.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b9d841b2f8442732a104f0e2ff74191bfcabd547f9c3c7fbea3c47fe4e2c5f91/FAC-Preppers-20.jpg)
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.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7e0d71f1b9a398c850cea2d75bbf557366c6eb66692e9e71794f899abe608ad6/grasshopper-1.png)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2e86022c434cc7c4323f0719fdac36433c1da7394d2f4ca389f41b2e31eb4b62/grasshopper-2.png)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5c20aa7dbb93a681d7f5cb37c776386eecf2d50c7cf90cd83726657fbc4c4c3b/grasshopper-3.png)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ba04a0beb84a4d4f02a9b8dbf2866d8425ed6c544990bb135931008d5bb00d03/grasshopper-4.png)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1ab6f2da04bf720ff46b15514061cc61cd0239ea5bba5708fc69b0d5ac4a386f/grasshopper-5.png)