Skip to content

Carla Bengtson

Menu
  • Projects
    • Every Word Was Once An Animal
    • Beyond Human Scents
    • Flicker
    • Mimetic Excess
    • Pollination Event
    • Teaching Aid
    • And Say
    • Your Nature
    • Snake Detection Theory
    • The Taste of Blue
    • R-RR-RRR-RRRR
    • Starting Over
    • Studio Mouse
    • Autobiographical Animal
    • S.C.O.L.D.
    • Becoming Colorful Becoming Warm
    • Hummer Habituator
    • Moth Moth
    • Middle Finger
    • Death Valley Wind
    • Utopia Distopia
    • All Videos*
    • Gallery*
  • News
  • About
    • Bio
    • Statement
    • Contact

The Taste of Blue

zoom

Dutch Boy #Z-68 Aqua Electra

Atta sexdens ant tracks in ink on Dutch Boy paint sample, 2.5” x 2.5”, 2009

During a residency at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station in the Amazon I offered Dutch Boy “Home Decorator” series paint samples, along with non-toxic ink, to a colony of leaf cutter ants.
Share

[email protected]

copyright 2019

Double Dutch

Archival digital print of Dutch Boy #Z-68 Aqua Electra, 72” x 72”, 2010

The following year, I enlarged the print to human-scale, showing the dried ink and half-tone dots of the paint sample from the ant’s point of view, and returned with it to the original site. The 72”x72” print was then torn into pieces and “fed” to the colony of leaf cutters.
Share

[email protected]

copyright 2019

Play Video

The Taste of Blue

Video, 2013

Video clip showing some of the ants collecting the pieces and bringing them into the nest, while others are removing them.
Share

[email protected]

copyright 2019

Play Video

The Taste of Blue

Video, 2013

Video clip of ants bringing print pieces into the nest.
Share

[email protected]

copyright 2019

Play Video

The Taste of Blue

Installation view, White Box Gallery, Portland, OR, 2012 2 Video projections, print remnants, paint sample, magnifying glass.

Gallery 1: Video projection of ants cutting and collecting print pieces, projected over print fragments.
Share

[email protected]

copyright 2019

The Taste of Blue

Installation view, White Box Gallery, Portland, OR, 2013

Trail of torn pieces leads up the wall from one room to another, ending up at the nest video.
Share

[email protected]

copyright 2019

The Taste of Blue

Installation view, White Box Gallery, Portland, OR, 2013

Gallery 2: Video projection of ants bringing print pieces into their nest, projected over print fragments.
Share

[email protected]

copyright 2019

Post navigation
Snake Detection Theory
R-RR-RRR-RRRR