Assignment: Two studies related in format, one depicting an animal as cute and the other as monstrous.
I decided to work with The Ant (Formicidae) for the rest of the semester, our communist sisters of the subterranean world. Though models of good behavior, ants do live their lives on a ridiculously rigid set of rules that sometimes lead to their doom, e.g., the ant spiral of death. And since spring has sprung, the bloggosphere has been abuzz (how come ants don’t get a communicative verb?!) on how to get rid of them. The sight of ants on the kitchen counter is far too much for some, and yet they are doing what comes naturally and what we love them the most for—slaving to feed the queen.
I am intrigued by Salvador Dalí’s fascination of ants, which he used to represent both death and female sexuality. Ants in the Pant(ie)s tries to recapitulate these themes by presenting two cute cartoon ants above grass on the outside of a woman’s underwear. On the inside lies a more disturbing swarm of less cute and more realistic ants, much like when one removes a rock to discover an ant’s nest. To further play with themes of feminine hygiene/the housewife mentality, I introduced a spray with a cute cartoon ant angel displayed on its canister.
I feel this piece at its current state is lacking in many ways. Due to time constraints, I used found images off the internet. Second, I tried to heat press the images onto the cotton undies, which worked on the outside but failed miserably on its inside lining. So I ended up drawing most of it freehand with a sharpie, which did not create the best results. Were I to create another prototype, I feel three dimensional ants would be best. Cuter non-granny panties might be nice, as well.
