Mastotermes Darwiniensis /mɑːstɒtɜːmz ˈdɑːwɪŋ.ɪen.sɪs/Giant Northern Termite is a video and sound work sharing the perspective of a termite colony chewing, digesting and depositing English language books underground on the rural block I grew up on in the (so-called) ‘Northern Territory.’ In this work spanning several years, the iconic human knowledge-source becomes food-source for Mastotermes Darwiniensis, the giant northern termite. I began working with this termite colony when they started eating my late father’s shed. I fed them his books. Many of the books were fictionalised Australian history books written by colonialists. I selected other books paying attention to the artifice of history and colonising knowledge systems that continue to be imposed onto this place. Termites are widely poisoned as the insects are known to surreptitiously undermine a whole structure. Through this work I imagine both ‘living’ and ‘future’ unmoored from the problematic supremacy of Euro- and anthropo-centric knowledge systems.
Liss Fenwick