Swarm

[sidebar]SWARM: A Collaboration with Bees at Lotusland runs through May 4, 2013.[/sidebar]

A provocative collection of artistic work pertaining to bees and hive culture is now on display at Lotusland. The exhibit, curated by Nancy Gifford, includes contemporary art and sculpture as well as dance and film events created by several artists, both local and from further afield.

Visitors may see the exhibit as a part of a Lotusland docent-guided tour. Tours of the garden take place at 10 AM and 1:30 PM, Wednesday through Saturday. Reservations are required. Admission is adults $35; ages 5 through 18, $10; 4 and under, free. There is no charge for Lotusland members.  www.lotusland.org

A bas relief “beescape” created by Toronto-based artist Penelope Stewart from beeswax tiles adorning the walls in the Pavilion was inspired by plants at Lotusland. This new sensory-rich beeswax architecture with its fragrant wax and dynamic interpretation aims to invigorate our collective imagination of place and our relationship with pollinators. Penelope Stewart was born in Montréal, Québec. Stewart has a multi-disciplinary practice comprising installation, sculpture, photography and works on paper.

Los Angeles-based photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher’s highly magnified black and white photos of bees and bee parts were captured with a scanning electron microscope. Ms. Fisher says “When I first viewed the bee’s eye magnified, I was amazed to see a field of hexagons. I thought of honeycomb, and marveled at the similarity between the structure of the bee’s vision and structures she builds.”

Six images from Stephanie Wilde’s ongoing body of work, “The Golden Bee,” will be on view. When Ms. Wilde began the Golden Bee project in 2008, her intent was to create images depicting the disappearance of the western honeybee. Though the subject addresses the environment, Ms. Wilde says  “ it came as a natural progression from my past works relating to AIDS. The disappearance of the honeybee and AIDS has a parallel: both are unresolved scientific challenges. AIDS has a growing impact on human lives and the disappearance of the western honeybee has the potential of an impact as significant.”

Visitors entering Ethan Turpin and Jonathan Smith’s  six-sided “bee cell” with images of bees projected on walls of cloth feel as though they are actually inside a bee hive.

Other artists who are part of “Swarm: A Collaboration with Bees” are Theresa Carter, Bill Dewey, Ed Inks, Cynthia James, Casey Lurie, Keith Puccinelli and Anna Vaughan.