Image: by Tamara Dean. Maria Fernanda Cardoso wins Australia Council grant to video insect sex, The Age, 22 May 2014.
Internationally-acclaimed artist MARIA FERNANDA CARDOSO has been awarded the Australian Council Fellowship grant of $100,000. Artists are awarded the grant whose practices address the exploration and experimentation in a cross-disciplinary approach. Through the blending of art and science, Cardoso’s project depicts the sexual organs of insects in the forms of sculpture. For this work she will be focusing on Australia’s smallest spider species, the Maratus, a project that has been in development for the past two years. The grant will go towards funding the creation of a documentary on the Maratus spider, highlighting high standard elements of installation, sound and performance. Titled Dancing With Spiders, Cardoso will capture visual and auditory proof of the 3-4mm-long spiders' dance and subsonic vibrations, inaudible to the human ear but revealed to us through the use of laser vibrometer technologies in what could be called music. Using large-scale, multi-screen HD Projections, Cardoso will make a video art installation featuring the different mating dances and looks of several of the Maratus species, including the amplified sounds they make.
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