Canadian artist Aganetha Dyck has been specializing in inter-species communication for over 23 years. Her partners in collaboration, hundreds of honeybees, work with her to create hybrid sculptures using wax and an array of found objects. We’re not talking about Snow White’s hoards of jovial forest creatures joining forces. In Dyck’s collaboration, the creatures are unconscious of the nature of their involvement.
With the help of apiarists who manage the technical aspects of beekeeping, Dyck places a diverse array of objects, from thrift store chintz to used football helmets, into an apiary. The bees then construct hives atop and around the found items.
“I am not approaching this project from the perspective of a beekeeper,” says Dyck, but as a collaborator contributing equal work to the creation of the pieces.
Her method is a fusion of chance and methodical preparation, as Dyck attempts to direct the bee’s construction and encourages “the honeybees to communicate” by “strategically adding wax or honey, propolis or hand-made honeycomb patterns to the objects prior to placing them into their hives.” This intentionality, however, is mixed with spontaneity, as she cannot predict the path the bees decide to take. The collaborative process is ongoing, as Dyck removes the pieces from the boxes in which the bees have been constructing, chisels and carves away excess honeycomb, then reintroduces the piece back into the hive. The bees, Dyck says, dictate the ultimate creative decision.
The environmentalist themes in these pieces are strong. Her pieces serve as evidence that two seemingly disparate systems must lean on each other for support. For example, a miniature Leaning Tower of Pisa is propped up by a glob of hive. Glossy figurines have chrysalises sprouting from their limbs like growths. Some balls of wax even cover their chipped faces entirely. In this way, man and nature are not only codependent, but also fused. This message is especially pertinent in light of the phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder, a recent occurrence in which worker bees suddenly and unexpectedly disappear. Dyck stresses this message, saying that her art is a process of asking “questions regarding the ramifications all living beings would experience should honeybees disappear from earth.”
Despite the themes of connectivity that can be drawn from these pieces, there is a notably stark contrast between intentions of the artist and the honeybees. The intricate patterns that make up the hive are programmed into the collective unconscious of the hive mind. The intention of the artist, on the other hand, is to create something with aesthetic or ideological, not functional, value. This incongruence reflects the inherent paradox of the modern honeybee. They are simultaneously fragile, in size as well as in light of CCD, and commanding, as “honey comb holds an amazing amount of weight, yet it’s paper thin.” Dyck’s work is about “the power of the small.”
Interview: Masion Journal
h/t: Thisiscolossal & Offbeat