British artist Monster Chetwynd lights up London's Tate Britain gallery with giant leopard slugs and their glowing slime trails, in a bid to spark conversation about our unsustainable use of energy.
Artist Alalia Chetwynd, who goes by the name Monster Chetwynd, marks the start of the winter season by illuminating the facade of Tate Britain with a series of LED-covered slugs.
Measuring over 10 metres long, each giant gastropod sculpture has been made from compostable materials, including wood, wicker, hessian and felt, with the intention of each element being recycled at the end of their three-month display.
Giant glowing slugs made from fully recyclable materials by artist Monster Chetwynd have been installed outside Tate BritainThe artist was inspired to create the installation after seeing the mating rituals of leopard slugs on a television documentary series called Life in the Undergrowth by British broadcaster and natural historian David Attenborough. As the documentary explains, these slugs reproduce by slithering up a tree and hanging from a branch by a glittering thread of mucus. The ritual typically takes place at night, as the slugs entwine the tube-like growths from their heads together, which glow blue as they mate.
"Slime trails"made from LED ropes cover the slugs themselves and the facade of the buildingSwathes of blue, white and yellow slug trails made from energy-efficient LED ropes cover the building's late 19th-century facade to emulate this...