“The most famous of all hexagonal conformations and perhaps the most beautiful is that of the bee’s cell.” -D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, On Growth and Form (1917).
Arial drone view, Unison Arts, New Paltz NY, September 2022
Politics and Pollinators is a temporary open air structure designed for collective decision making, made from rough saws mountain ash and pre-fabricated stair risers. The geometry of the sculpture takes after the bee’s cell. The dimensions are 20 x 10 x 5 feet (6 x 3 x 1.5 metres), in length, width and height. Honeybees have been studied since antiquity for a few good reasons: for the way they build, and the way they communicate. Imagine if our society were formed on the steps of the Parthenon.
Designed as a freestanding sculpture for collective decision making, the work combines eight stair risers into a steel structure that is spanned by ash timbers, felled milled locally in Sullivan County, specifically for this project. The woods silver tone is imparted by a non-toxic stain widely used in Canada. Ash is a hardwood known to have a long straight grain and cellular structure. The dimension of each plank is a true inch and a half, and a bit furry from the saw.
The silver finish is a natural, environmentally friendly protective finish commonly used by Parks Canada to protect its infrastructure and the environment. Mountain Ash, commonly found in the high crown forests of the Upper Delaware River Valley, is prone to an invasive beetle. Like many parts of New York and the continental United States, as stewards we have a decision to make. Many believe the best course of action is to cut the trees down, thereby curtailing the advance of the beetle.
One goal is to imagine a society formed through discourse, on the steps of the Parthenon, as a sculpture for collective decision making. One goal is to re-imagine a beehive as a monument. My colleague Eleanor King stacks things and makes abstract images by weaving words left and right. This stack is vertical and symbolic in that the words HIVE and MIND are painted in a woven graphic on its surface. Like language, art is symbolic can adopt new significance through its’ use.
Dimensional lumber supports the weight of a multiple people at once. Wordplay generated by the arrangements of honey made by an uninitiated art audience and members of the public. This is Nora. There is an opportunity to take home jars as one would purchase produce from a farm stand.
In the spring, when the bees visit apple trees their honey is very pale, and tastes like apples. When they visit maples, it tastes like syrup and looks like gold. In the summer when the bees visit knotweed their honey is almost black. I can separate each taste and color with Flow Frames. These jars have letters for building words of ones own.
Jars of honey, from the artists apiary in the Western Catskills, are marked with a letter. The project uses food as material, like works completed in Halifax and Toronto, to simultaneously disarm and engage their respective audiences. Honeybees have been studied since antiquity for a few good reasons: for the way they build, and the way they communicate. Honey presents the public with an opportunity to build words of their own.
Pollen influences the taste and color of honey according to flowers in bloom. Long before social media, artists have been keeping bees in Sullivan County; In 2013 I introduced Flow Frames to Mad Bee Honey. Social creatures communicate by veering left and right to describe a new location for the hive through a series of movements called a “waggle dance”.
Inclusion is a design decision. Verna Myers suggests “Inclusion is being asked to the party. Diversity is being asked to dance.” Two previous works that use diversity as a premise for contemporary design are Kitchener and Waterloo. How language developed among honeybees is not clear. A confluence of design elements, (including geometry, material, duration, and scale) consider how language can transform any society, even our own.
Plans drawn in Rhino 6 use parametric modeling to visualize the design in advance. Honeybees are social. They communicate through dance. Workers fly by the angle of sun and reproduce these directions through a series of movements called the waggle dance.
Does observation merge with imagination? If our society was formed, let's say, on the steps of the Parthenon, by people hanging out, looking up at the night sky to discuss its’ stars, perhaps similar conditions can be designed, for the public good.
Inspired by the bees' swarm intelligence and Robert Seeleys’ book, Honeybee Democracy, my friend and colleague Eleanor King stacks an excessive number of prefabricated supers to consider as she puts it, ‘our own fragile democracy’. This drawing visualizes one possible design for an insert, or wooden coupling, that would join one box the the next, ad infinitum.
“The key to an understanding of this message is a very curious one. We first must understand that under normal circumstances,” explains Karl Von Fritsch, “a bee dances on the perpendicular honeycomb inside a hive where it is quite dark. In the ordinary hive bees cannot perceive the direction of the sun, but apparently rely on the direction of gravity.”
“If, during the straight portion of the dance a honeybee heads 60 degrees to the left of vertical,” says Karl Von Fritsch, “then the feeding place is situated 60 degrees to the left of the Sun.” The Bee Series visualizes spatial data of four bumble bees, as works on canvas.
Azimuth is a dance. “If a dancer heads directly upward during the straight part of her dance on the honeycomb, says Von Fritsch, ‘the feeding place is in the same direction as the Sun.’ If the straight run points down, it means, ‘Fly away from the sun to reach the food.’
studio view, Politics and Pollinators (2021) stop motion
In strategic collaborations involve working independently, towards a common goal. In this project Eleanor and I worked on our own schedule, with our own resources, on two independent freestanding sculptures that speak to one another.
Politics and Pollinators (2021) installation view
The sculpture is made of rough sawn ash from Sullivan County, steel and repurposed stair risers that are designed to come apart, and support several people at once, in a new place.
Politics and Pollinators (2021) stop motion installation, Unison Arts, New Paltz, New York
Politics and Pollinators is a sculpture for collective decision making. Honeybees have been studied since antiquity for a few good reasons: for the way they build, and the way they communicate.
Politics and Pollinators (2021), strategic collaboration with Eleanor King, Owning Earth, 26.06.2021 - 01.06.2022, Unison Arts, 68 Mountain Rest Road, New Paltz NY
Artist-made honey is for sale ‘farmstand-style’ directly off the sculpture. A QR code on the jar directs your phone to an e-commerce site. Jars are labeled with individual letters of the alphabet for constructing simple words or perhaps a phrase, at the moment of purchase.
Politics and Pollinators (2021), strategic collaboration, Lucy Pullen w Eleanor King, Owning Earth, 26.06.2020 - 15.09.2022, Unison Arts, 68 Mountain Rest Road, New Paltz NY