We began working for Tate in 2000 with a wide brief to respond to the collection of the new Tate Modern. After delivering the first products, we were asked us to work on their exhibition merchandise. The first was Zero to infinity: Arte Povera 1962-1972, the second was Surrealism: Desire Unbound, also in 2001, from when our story begins.
Though made in reference to Dalí, the idea to spell out the name Tate in ants was to imagine that their blurry brand had been spelled out in sugar, and that the ants swarmed to feed on the origin of Tate's wealth. A later Dalí exhibition travelled to MoMA in 2008 and they asked for their name to be spelled in the same way. Though MoMA has nothing to do with the sugar trade, and did not have a blurry logo, it still looked brilliant made out of ants. It remains on sale at MoMA after six years:
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| Still from 'Un Chien andalou', 1924. Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel |
Though made in reference to Dalí, the idea to spell out the name Tate in ants was to imagine that their blurry brand had been spelled out in sugar, and that the ants swarmed to feed on the origin of Tate's wealth. A later Dalí exhibition travelled to MoMA in 2008 and they asked for their name to be spelled in the same way. Though MoMA has nothing to do with the sugar trade, and did not have a blurry logo, it still looked brilliant made out of ants. It remains on sale at MoMA after six years:
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| MoMA Ants Tote bag for the 'Dalí: Painting and Film' exhibition, 2008. Available to buy here. |
