FRONT GALLERY
November - 3 December 2022

TOM BUCKLAND, SIAN WATSON, and EMMA RANI HODGES
Arthropoda

In a world long ruled by insects, us humans have evolved only relatively recently. Together we share an extensive history that imbues our spiritual, cultural, and scientific endeavours.

Although we derive considerable benefit from their services, including pollination, honey and the biological control of pests and weeds, the pestiferous activities of a mere fraction of insect species negatively shapes humankind's perception. In Antropoda, artists Tom Buckland, Sian Watson and Emma Rani Hodges will investigate and explore the everyday struggles of our insect co-inhabitants in this age of the anthropocene bringing the minute into glaring focus with costume and video. Humorous, whimsical and sometimes sobering on contemplation, the artists invite the viewer to partake in a close-up focus of the complicated and multifaceted world of insects.

Sian Watson
The fruit fly is a constant across the world and we share more than our food with them. Genetically, fruit flies are the perfect molecular mechanisms for replicating around 70% of disease-causing genes in humans. We breed them for science and exterminate them to protect our produce.
Sian Watson is an Adelaide based artist who explores the relationship between humans, animals and our shared environments. Having completed her BVA (Hons 1) at ANU in 2015, she has had multiple solo exhibitions, held in public and private collections and most recently was the recipient of the 2021 CAPO Rosalie Gascoigne Memorial Award.

Tom Buckland
In 2015, it was discovered that mealworms can degrade polystyrene into usable organic matter at a rate of about 34–39 milligrams per day. Additionally, no difference was found between mealworms fed only styrofoam and mealworms fed conventional foods during the one-month duration of the experiment.
Tom Buckland is an artist who deals in a correspondence of imaginary worlds, transporting his audience to other dimensions across space and time. In 2015, Tom graduated from the ANU School of Art with a BVA (hons). Tom has exhibited nationally and internationally and in 2021 was the recipient of the Sculpture by the Sea Clitheroe Foundation emerging artist mentorship.

Emma Rani Hodges
In the part of Thailand where the maternal side of my family is from, women aren’t allowed to marry or ‘grow up’ until they’ve learnt to weave. The silk moth played an instrumental role in this, literally having its life taken for ritual. Nowadays these months and their little worms are in mass demand. The moths spend their 4 day life span breeding so their silkworm babies can be sacrificed to meet commercial demand for silk.
Emma Rani Hodges’s work explores their mixed Thai, Chinese and Australian heritage through a post-colonial and feminist framework with a focus on family and the personal as political. Working in the language of expanded painting, their work draws on personal narratives and inserts marginalised voices into the dominant discourse of monocultural Australia.