Faculty of Art

Drawing and Painting

Christina Vercillo

PHOBIA

This piece in my collection of FEAR represents the irrational Phobia. This sculpture represents the specific phobia, "Entomophobia" or the excessive fear of insects. This work consists of a giant wire insect crawling on top of a sculpted figure head.

“When we think of phobias, we typically think of irrational fears. However, phobias can be rather debilitating to a degree where it greatly impairs someone's everyday life. Entomophobia is a rather common phobia among people that is an excessive irrational fear of insects. I personally feel a connection to this phobia because I have fears of some insects, specifically centipedes. I had confronted this fear and wanted to know why I was so uncomfortable with the common house centipede. When looking at a picture of a centipede I noticed I felt extremely disturbed at first but that it slowly got easier with time. I observed its hundred long spindly legs and felt as if they were crawling on me. This feeling gave me the idea to create a giant centipede crawling on top of my head with the hundred legs wriggling into my scalp and neck. This piece is aimed to bring phobia to life by giving viewers the same unnerving sense that I experience when exposed to Entomophobia.”