Ants to Dine on Happy Meals as Part of Exhibit That Explores the American Diet
A Rutgers University–Camden artist concerned about the tiniest inhabitants of a fast food nation partnered with a behavioral ecologist to create an installation that features an enormous ant farm and McDonald’s Happy Meals as the sole feeding source.
Elizabeth Demaray, an assistant professor of fine arts at Rutgers–Camden, is a featured artist in the exhibition “Consume” on view at Exit Gallery in New York City through Aug. 28. A project of Social Environmental Aesthetics, “Consume” investigates the world’s systems of food production, distribution, consumption and waste.
“An ant might be less than one-millionth the size of a human being, but ants taken collectively rival people as dominant organisms on the land. The soil they move circulates vast quantities of nutrients vital to the health of the land ecosystems. Is what we’re eating affecting not just our bodies, but ecosystems?” asks Demaray.
Titled “Corpor Esurit (The body hungers), or we all deserve a break today,” Demaray’s work features a 7-foot-high by 8-foot -
The installation prompts the viewer to observe and record the ants’ vitality and behavior. Posted worksheets ask viewers to take note of what the ants are eating, how many ants they are seeing in a specific area, and to even sketch an ant. The exhibit also provides enlarged nutritional contents of the meals as well as background on biotopes.
Demaray’s fascination with perception in art originates from an undergraduate education in cognitive psychology and neuroscience at the University of California at Berkeley. She then studied art at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in New York, before returning to UC-Berkeley to earn her MFA.
The recipient of the 2001-02 National Studio Award at the New York Museum of Modern Art and a 2005 New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellow in sculpture, Demaray has shown her work in museums nationwide. She joined the Rutgers–Camden faculty in 2005. A northern California native, Demaray currently resides in Brooklyn.
Media Contact: Cathy K. Donovan
856-225-6627
E-mail: catkarm@camden.rutgers.edu