Like a window or a painting, this work is an active performance unfolding through the labor of the ants as they tunnel and consume the domino sugar cube over the course of an exhibition. Creating their networks as the ants transverse through the sand, their tunnels become visible and invisible to the spectator.

A Habit of Chasing What Moves, this ant farm is made from acrylic and aluminum channel, with an inch thickness, the ants have options to where their tunnels twist and lead. Over the course of the exhibit, the ants transverse the space and alter their terrain as necessary. Paths once made become collapsed as new paths are formed, the ants obscure themselves from view but work nonetheless. The ants serve as avatars of the worker.

Worker ants are known to be female, the idea of ants being these incessant little workers that people don’t typically care for seems to be a tragic parallel between women’s unseen and undervalued yet indispensable labour in community. In both the public and private spheres, women’s work is not always acknowledged and often belittled. Yet the women and ants work regardless.