Brit Bunkley

The Huntsman (2013)

2 min 32 secSingle channel / Digital Video / Colour / Sound

"An oversized spider leisurely roams along Rosebank Road in the Auckland suburb of Avondale and in Herne Bay juxtaposed against stop motion images of screams from Grade B horror movies of fictional killer spiders. Of the 35,000 species of spiders described worldwide, only a handful are considered to be dangerous and only 27 are known to have caused human fatalities.

The irrational fear of spiders is an apt trope for unfounded fear—in the colloquial sense, 'paranoia', which conditions racism, diffidence and the Hobbesian trap of violence. The 3D digital spiders were modelled on a freeze-dried Avondale spider from the Auckland Museum scanned at Formscan, North Auckland. Avondale spiders were the spiders shipped from Auckland to LA for the movie Arachnophobia (1990). They are harmless."

Artist's statement

Other works by Brit Bunkley

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