In a new art installation at the Torch Theatre, Littlehaven based artist Alison Hayes has created a mesmerising experience in which images of millions of ants are viewed ceaselessly at work through large-scale shimmering spheres.
Hidden within the Coed y Brenin Forest in Snowdonia are colonies of hairywood ants. It is their most southerly location in the UK and they build nests up to 7ft tall but are rarely observed.
Hayes has spent the last year observing, filming and recording the actions of these colonies.
"Ants have inspired scientists, philosophers, artists, writers and sociologists to develop theories about the behavior of ants in relation to human life", she observes. "Ants work collectively together, they have armies, make war, defend territories, hunt, farm other creatures, share food and build elaborate structures for their home."
The installation's title, Superorganism, is the scientific term used to determine the fact that ants can only thrive when grouped as a colony. Hayes notes, "... with apparently little individuality they operate as superorganisms and if you observe them closely over time you start considering human social interactions in a different way."
The installation looks stunning as an artwork in its own right and offers to the viewer the close-up chance to observe and experience the strangeness of ants and other worlds within our world - stimulating a consideration of the relative place of humans on the planet.
It is accompanied by the amplified sounds of the forest filling the darkness around while the busy planets of ants actively glow within.
Alison Hayes is a video/sound/installation artist whose past works have explored themes relating to wildness. She often works with science specialists and has recorded images of migration and swarming patterns in birds and insects to create installations of arresting beauty which demand contemplation on the nature of space and time.
She has exhibited widely nationally and internationally and has received a number of major awards.
Superorganism was developed in collaboration with the Torch Theatre, Milford Haven, through a public art residency supported by The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
It can be seen free of charge at the Joanna Field Gallery in Milford Haven's Torch Theatre until 7 February.
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