Artist Uses Giant Ants to Address National Issues

With ‘Casa Tomada,’ or ‘Seized House,’ Rafael Gómezbarros created giant ants measuring in at 2 feet long using casts of human skulls for the head and torso. The Colombian artist has been installing swarms of over 1000 fiber glass ants on public buildings and historical monuments since 2007. Ants, being small but strong laborers of the insect world, are used to represent the millions of displaced immigrants all over the world. The concept behind the diaspora runs closer to home for Gomezbarros whose own people has suffered displacement and casualties from the internal armed conflict within the last half century. In Bogota, he covered the exterior of the National Congress’ building to address the national security policies that continues to allow the violence to take place in Colombia. The large-scale invasive ants seizing the homes of those in power sends an empowering and haunting message.