A Bugs Life is an exploration into the influence of technology, humans as are creatures of worship, unconscious living, and the impacts of social programming / conditioning on our autonomy.

The centerpiece of this installation is the Mobile Mobile which reimagines crib mobiles with glowing mobile phones, paralleling the soothing distraction these devices offer infants to the captivating hold smartphones have on us.

The Moths in this work represented humanities nature to worship, just as Moths are drawn to a flame we are drawn to each our own avenues of worship. David Foster Wallace talks about this in “This is Water” 

“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCbGM4mqEVw

Our “God” in this framework becomes whatever sits at the top of our value hierarchy. For the Moth it is Light, but it cannot distinguish between the flame, the bug zapper or a light bulb and so it is easily deceived towards self destruction. 

Just as the moth finds difficulty distinguishing between what light it seeks, we too are unconsciously drawn to modes of worship such as alcoholism, drug addiction, consumption of media, sex and money.

“the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful; it is that they are unconscious. They are default-settings. They’re the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that’s what you’re doing.”