Termite Ascension by Lara Joy Evans

Published

Lara Joy Evans

Termite Ascension

Golden Queen Mining Company, Reefer City, California

May 2020

We may be termites after all, building pillars using our own dirt, dung, and spit to ascend to the heavens in the sky. Alongside the empirical psyche, lives an impersonal and universal nature in the bugman as well as the individual. The termites move in unison to build chrysalis growths that extend into thin columns, slime ossifies into rigid crusts.

Lara Joy Evans has been researching the behavioral mechanics of termite colonies and their parallels to the collective unconscious for several years now. This research has resulted in an ongoing series of works; gothic termite castles, parasitic altars, drawings of spiritual iconography and mythologies, and several essays on mass psychosis, prophecy, and their origins. Part hallucination, part archeological artifact, part biological artifact, Termite Ascension is one sculptural piece that mimics most of Evans’s work, a gateway or tangible portal between realities.