23/11/2010 Recording the Buzz - Part 2 (Embercombe Bees in the Hive, November)

Sound recording bees Embercombe Sustainability Centre in the heart of Holden Forest. The contact microphone (which I expected to work well) did not pick up any bee activity, even though I could hear them myself. 
Because of cold weather I could not use Betty (Be) the head and the binaural microphone for fear of exposing the hive to the cold, so I push the mics inside and still picked up some interesting results. I intend to return each month and make a new recording up until summer when they will be much more active.

Unfortunately whilst making the recordings we found a hive with bees with very deformed wings, a very bad sign in bee world, but a very common occurrence for beekeepers.

19/11/2010 Into the Hive - Part 4 (Empty Spaces)

Willow Sphere

This is the first 3D willow structure I have experimented with making. It is very difficult to create a gentle fluidity to the weave, I had to tie and knot the willow on itself or with rush meaning any sweeping line is broken by knots. Willow does not stay ply-able for long after being removed from soaking in water, making knotting and even weaving gently in parts very difficult and often snapped.  
Without beeswax lining the inside the sphere embodies an emptiness, a negative space, however possibly contradictory the ball somehow has more life inside and surrounding it than the 2D beeswax hoop. Natural light bounces through each gap in the weave from one twist of willow to the next, would adding wax remove or add to this quality?

14/11/2010 Recording the Buzz - Part 1

Inside a beehive made into a house ceiling

It is believed that the inside of the beehive is a reflection of our planet, the more we discover about the interior workings of the hive, the more we will learn about the self destruction of bio-diversity on Earth.
In order to take the audience into the hive I must first go there myself. Using a variety of sound recording devices from ordinary microphones to specialist binaural microphones I hope to uncover the world inside the hive though the bees own highly sophisticated communication system of sounds and vibrations. 
*The binaural microphone sits aside the sound recorders ears picking up surrounding sounds as she/he is hearing them, placing the listener in an exact sound replica of the original situation.*
I predict that the sounds inside the hive will grow more and more vibrant as the seasons change from winter though spring into summer (the height of bee activity). At this most active stage in the bee calender I hope to use a contact microphone linked to the outside of the hive which will pick up the vibrations from inside.   

11/11/2010 Into the Hive - Part 3 (Wax Pour Test 1)

Dartmoor beeswax melted and poured into willow and rush woven ring

Melting and pouring beeswax is an unpredictable procedure. Every hole and crack has to be plugged with soften beeswax to prevent melted wax escaping. Not pouring enough melted wax creates a very uneven sheet, having enough wax means it can be quickly moved and spread but pouring flat produces best results.
I used a blowtorch to even out under surface of wax when cooled, however rush is very flammable!
When held up to the light, the rush weave can be seen silhouetted through the wax. 

10/11/2010 Weave the Kenyan Way

Wood and Mud Houses in Kenya

During my recent month in the East Coast of Kenya, I established a deep connection with the culture, environment and people living there. I knew I wanted to make work inspired by the architecture of rural family houses made from a simple but affective wooden frame filled in with the deep red earth that covers the Kenyan landscape as soon as I saw them. In a climate that is very hot and humid for the major part of the year, these houses need to be nothing more than easy and cheap to build, with a cool,dry interior but these houses have a simplistic beauty like no other architecture I have seen.

(weaver bird nest photo)

03/11/2010 Into the Weave - Laura Ellen Bacon

Laura Ellen Bacon - Swollen Forms

Laura Ellen Bacon uses woven willow to create her large scale often site specific sculptures. 'Organic forms and natural phenomena' inspire her work, 'the locking accumulation of driftwood, the bulge of fallen snow on a windowsill, or the swell of a starling swarm.' Bacon in fascinated with nests or 'dens', spaces to climb inside. 

'While the material of willow may be relatively light, I like to create a sense of weight and movement, an organic fluidity, as if gravity has intervened[...]' (Bacon 2010 14)

Fluidity - movement, sequences in nature, passage of time,
Willow pairs - weave in pairs of complimenting willow, strength, forged relationships. 
Enclosed Space - comfort, safety, warmth

Bacon, L.E (2010) Into the Weave, Sheffield: Northend and Creative Print Solutions.

26/10/2010 Into the Hive - Part 2 (Woven Spaces)

Chagford Willow

Willow, used since ancient times for basketry, ritual and sculpture among its many other uses, this marsh-growing plant is very flexible when soaked in water making it an extremely useful material. I have sourced it growing in Chagford, Devon along with rush (a more straw-like material).
If planted shortly after being cut, willow will grow again, meaning it could form a site-specific living sculpture. However un-planted and untreated, willow will rot and disintegrate, creating an ephemeral quality to a sculpture, and could perhaps be used as a compost material.

I would like to create a willow crawl space that will immerse the audience in natural sights, sounds, textures and scents but would also be a habitat for bees and other insects.

15/10/2010 Wild is Right..?

Kaua'i, Hawaii - "Where the honey grows on trees"

Wild or Farmed? Feral or Managed?
So far my research has solely been centred on farmed bees, but this suddenly feels like a contradiction of my passion for all things natural.
The aesthetic differences between the two bee hives are astounding. Beehives as I, and most of us know them to be are regimented stacks of perfectly formed honeycombs, each cell bulging with honey, a conveyor belt process of honey production.
The wild hives however are not contained in neat boxes, they are nestled inside protective hollow trees or the entrance to caves. The honeycomb, although it seems always formed vertically, has a natural curvature, a soft fluidity, heavy with the weight of the golden honey.

13/10/2010 Into the Hive - Part 1

Ernesto Neto

"Inspired by nature, organic matter or cellular tissues Ernesto Neto knows how to turn stretching fabrics and spaces into perfect symbiosis, a true representation of organic matter growing and filling in an an empty space." Neto's use of luxurious, transparent fabrics impregnated with exotic spices and scents encase the audience in a sensuous protective space.

Inspired by his womb-like creations, I would like to construct a space in which audiences would be immersed in the scent, colour and texture of a hive. I would like to use only natural, bio-degradable materials that can be sourced locally.

12/10/2010 Stillness in Movement

Hilary Berseth - Artist/Insect Collaboration

Ephemera - Is a word that I repeatedly use when I talk about my work. I thrive on the fact that like nature my work is always changing, living perhaps. I feel it gives my work a rare status that can only live through those few who have witnessed it. It becomes part of the story, not the story itself. 
The sun, the changing of the seasons and the Pagan calender are as important to my work as they to the balance of nature and eco-systems. 

Artist Hilary Berseth has formed an artistic collaboration between artist and insect. Berseth created a 'platform' for the bees inside the hive to work out from, when he lifted the hives lid inside was an intricate spiral of honeycomb.The idea of Artist/Nature collaborations fascinate me.

11/10/2010 Give the Bee Back Its Buzz

Agnes Dene' Wheatfield - A Confrontation (1982)

I would like to create a sculpture that reaches beyond sustainability from just an individual message to have a physically positive impact on the specific environment the work is situated in. Agnes Denes’ 1982 sustainable art piece Wheatfield – A Confrontation has been a great political and moral influence on my work. A feminist Land Artist, Denes planted a 2 acre field of wheat in a vacant lot in the middle of New York City, it was a comment on “human values and misplaced priorities.” The then harvested 1,000 lbs of grain travelled to 28 cities around the world for The International Art Show for the End of World Hunger. The grain was then symbolically planted all around the world.

5/10/2010 Me and the Bee

Wolfgang Laib's Pollen Work

'The Vanishing Bee, Colony Collapse Disorder, the Plight of the Honey Bee' all describe the devastating environmental crisis that is affecting honeybee colonies worldwide. As a sculptural artist I have been both terrified and fascinated by this subject for the last few years of my artistic practice. It began when I needed a new sculptural material that could be found locally, was eco-friendly and very malleable, I found Dartmoor beeswax. I believe that as an artist I am in a position of responsibility to use my work as a tool to promote awareness, which would result in changes to our immediate and shared environment. Through artistic experimentation and interdisciplinary enquiry I have created a number of sculptural forms that promote the awareness of CCD.

My work has been greatly influenced by Wolfgang Laib’s delicately haunting pollen and beeswax artworks, Roger Ackling’s simple but striking sun burnt drawings and sciences from plotting weather and sun patterns to entomology.