Brit Bunkley

The 3D digital spider prints and animation are modelled on a freeze-dried Avondale spider from the Auckland Museum scanned at Formscan, Auckland. An oversized spider leisurely roams along Rosebank Road in the Auckland suburb of Avondale juxtaposed against stop motion images of screams from Grade B horror movies of fictional killer spiders.

Of the 35,000 species of spiders described worldwide, only a handful are considered to be dangerous and only 27 are known to have caused human fatalities. The irrational fear of spiders is an apt trope for unfounded fear -in the colloquial sense, “paranoia”, which conditions racism, diffidence and the Hobbesian trap of violence.The top image is part of the Rosebank Road Walk, the Auckland Art Festival 2013.