Three giant ants by Gerhard Petzl

Three giant ants blocking the elevator

+ 5 images

Gerhard Petzl

Three giant ants, 2020

Bronze

47 x 110 x 50 cm (18.5 x 43.31 x 19.69 in)

The "Giant ants" installation, also in bronze, is a testament to Petzl's ability to infuse dynamic energy into static forms. It’s a concept that conjures up associations with Louise Bourgeois's "Maman," both artists exploring the psychological underpinnings of the natural world transformed through their vision. Petzl’s ants, with their gilded exoskeletons and sprawling limbs, bring a surreal magnification to the ordinarily minute, creating a visual impact that speaks to both the fragility and the monumentality of life.
When considering the "Giant ants," it recall the Dadaists and Surrealists, who prized the uncanny and the marvelous. Petzl's ants, frozen in mid-march, transform the gallery space into a landscape of wonder, much as Salvador Dalí's "Lobster Telephone" once challenged the domestic mundanity with the shock of the unexpected. - Quotation from Contemporary Art Curator - Marta Puig

A family of three giant ants, mum and their two kids are exploring the (art)world. Last time people saw them at Lake Geneva in Switzerland, checking out the water temperature and strolling around. Passing by people admired the reflections of the sun in the artwork which made them almost shine like a sun itself, some people were even scared by looking at them with all the spikes standing off: Some even had nightmares afterwards by seeing them again in their dreams oversized as an almost deadly attack like it also happened with the freaky spider sculptures of Louise Bourgeois as well.

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Additional Details

Additional Artworks

Composition XX, 2023

"Taddli" (Dali teddy), 2023

Spine, 2022

Anthill sculpture mouse, 2022

Lung lobster, 2022

Uplifting mood balloon, 2021

5in1-heads composition, c. 2020

...and all of it, just because of the Porsche!, 2020