Christopher Chiappa, ‘Hermit crab’, video (2010)
‘Hermit crab’ is a video manipulating common childhood pet hermit crabs in a way that
depicts power and abuse. The artist’s head is cropped out of each frame as he methodically
glues each of the twenty-five hermit crab shells together to form a circle. The crabs’ behavior
during the gluing evokes human struggle and strategies for coping as a group.
Photograph taken at the end of the production of the film.