Observations

The exhibition includes the work Ride a Wind and Draw a Line (1973), which invites close observation. On a pedestal stands a transparent acrylic box that contains spiders. On a second pedestal are two monitors, one above the other. One monitor shows a live recording of the spiders in the box. The other monitor shows a recorded video of a spider in the wild, weaving a perfect web. We can watch it do this fascinating work in real time. A spiderweb is a technology of nature. The threads that the spider secretes through a gland are thinner than human hair, stronger than steel, and more flexible than rubber.

“I am very interested in natural phenomena. Once I taped a spider making a web. It would emerge at dusk, trimm off the old web, and rebuild the whole thing. What elegant, beautiful technology. In the days of open reel-VCR, the maximum we could tape was half an hour, so every night I would play a game with the spider, hoping that it would finish by the time the tape did. What I wanted was for people to experience the spider's time, not mine. We've been selecting and perceiving nature through our own 'filter' for so long. I want to be on equal terms with nature”.