A line

2026
Plastic ant figurines, wooden matches, adhesive tape
Variable dimensions

About the work

A continuous line of ants, each carrying a wooden match. Moving slowly and collectively, they form a quiet procession through the exhibition space, in dialogue with Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (1923):  

‍

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

‍

But I have promises to keep,

‍

And miles to go before I sleep,

‍

And miles to go before I sleep.”  

‍

The work holds a quiet tension between the individual and the collective, between care and anger, obedience and resistance. Each ant carries the possibility of fire, yet none of the matches are lit. What begins as a small act of carrying becomes a question of what we carry, what we follow, and what we cannot leave behind. The line becomes a path, a boundary, a journey, or a trap.

‍

Trần Quang Đại

Trần Quang Đại (b. 1992, Việt Nam) is a conceptual artist & poet with a background in criminal law. Trained in Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art, London, his work brings together traditional media and socially reflective methods to navigate the silent spaces between ethics, belonging, and the unseen architectures of power.

‍

Rooted in experiences of post-war Việt Nam and informed by post-internet thinking, his practice engages with questions of memory, identity, and resilience; inviting reflection on the convergences of the self and the social.