Never Miss The Honey, HKOP Residency, 2025

“The next morning a frightful spectacle awaited me. When I reached the back of the wash-house, I found a glass overturned, the ladybugs gone and the bat, though still half-alive, bristling with frenzied ants, its tortured little face exposing tiny teeth like an old woman’s.”

Through changes in observation and perspective, even the smallest creature can reveal unexpected strength. In his 1942 autobiography, “The Secret Life of Salvador Dali”, surrealist painter Salvador Dalí hinted at how the blend of attraction and repulsion from insects has inspired him. Similarly, Julie May draws inspiration from her own fascination with ants, contemplating the dichotomy of fear and desire that coexists in life. Here, ants connect with alternative routes to pleasure, alongside the potential for destruction. She explores the intimate qualities of etching, weaving together the idea that fear and desire are at the root of each other. The more desires one upholds, the greater the fear that those desires will remain unfulfilled. “Never Miss the Honey” communicates a quiet obsession, depicting the power dynamics Julie May observed in ants, as well as in people.