Art work of tiny proportions went on display in London on Friday, showcasing small-scale figurines at an “ant-sized” exhibition.
Ahead of Friday’s release of Marvel’s latest cinematic offering “Ant-Man,” micro-artist Willard Wigan has recreated the superhero, who can shrink in size but grow in power, on a very small scale - in the eye of a needle.
The figurine is so minute it has to be viewed properly through a microscope, as with most of Wigan’s work.
At “Antsibition,” his tiny “Ant-Man” is on display alongside other pieces measuring only a few micromillimetres, such as a skateboarder on the end of an eye lash and a Harley motorbike, also sitting in the eye of a needle.
“I don’t enjoy doing this work because it drives me insane but I get pleasure when I finish it,” Wigan told Reuters.
“That’s the drive ... the end result, the finish.”
Wigan began creating the tiny work at the age of five when he made houses for ants -- one of which is also on display at “Antsibition” in a gallery itself made up of a small room at London’s Old Street station.
He makes his own small tools -- such as tweezers made from a dead wasp’s sting and paints with a fly’s hair.
“If you make a mistake as you’re painting ... the whole thing will be a total shambles,” he said. “Anything I do, it’s microns of movement. I have to be a dead man working. Everything has to be so still, sometimes I find myself going cold.”
“Ant-Man”, which stars Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas, was released on July 17.
