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66 Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection
Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection 67
Rivane Neuenschwander
/ Brazil b.1967 /
Contingent
(still) 2008
/ SD video transferred to Digital Betacam, colour, silent, 10:30 minutes / Acc. 2008.354
/ Purchased 2008.
Queensland Art Gallery Foundation
R i vane Neuenschwander
Contingent
2008
Rivane Neuenschwander’s videos often feature ants, whose
physical activity and social organisation has been considered
analogous to that of humans.
Contingent
presents a map of the
world rendered in honey and consumed by a swarm of ants.
As the honey ‘continents’ gradually erode and landmasses
become fragmented islands, Neuenschwander’s cartography is
shown to be mutable and transient. That the health of the world
is contingent on the rate of consumption is a pointed message,
played out by the ever-decreasing number of ants able to access
a diminishing supply of food.