Stuff

I did my talk at the University of Sheffield last week - it went ok i think (there was no booing from the audience of over 100). To hear Professor Ratnieks and Dr Claire Preston talk was amazing: in my research for the Bee Project i've read works by both of them... so, the added bonus of meeting with them too was really inspiring for me.

During the daytime before the talk I went to YSP for the first time in a while. The blue and yellow meadow test plots are coming along - the blue one is fit to burst with Cornflower Centaurea cyanthus, but the yellow meadow is looking decidedly less lush - there's quite a lot of Yellow Rattle Rhinanthus minor coming up and flowering, but i think the very dry weather seems to have hampered most of the other species so far.

The hives have been moved from the boathouse to the lawn behind the garden gallery and Ivor the beekeeper has added more of his hives too.

All in all a good trip over to Yorkshire i think.

Arts-Science Encounters 2011

I am one of the guest speakers this Thursday 19th May at the Arts-Science Encounters 2011 at the University of Sheffield.

I will be doing a talk about the Bee Project and my residency at Yorkshire Sculpture Park along side guest speakers Francis Ratnieks (Professor of Apiculture, University of Sussex) and Claire Preston (Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge)

Thursday 19 May, 5.15–7.15pm
Venue: HRI (Humanities Research Institute)

The talk is free and open to the general public

For more information: Arts-Science Encounters 2011

Curate the Campus

I'm working on another project for this week and next: i'm artist in residence at LICA (Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts) based at Lancaster University.

I'm concentrating on the Dandelion Project - an ongoing investigation into the science, folklore, symbolism and art of dandelion species.
If you're really struggling to fill your time please click here for more info:
http://www.chesneydandelions.blogspot.com/

Inspect

One of the last pieces of work to be finished ready for the exhibition ended up being a bit of a trial to figure out - not especially technically difficult, just the practicality of relaying the image in my head into a physical object.

As i've mentioned before i have collected lots of dead bees not just during the project but since well before then too. During the bee project i met Adam Wilcox, a forensic entomologist, and he let me use the microscopes in the laboratories where he works at the University of Central Lancashire here in Preston.

Looking at the bees wings, eyes, hair, legs etc under such scrutiny was absolutely breath taking - revealing a world of magically beautiful images.

I decided to show only 3 of the images (a choice that took ages and ages) and made little viewing boxes to see them in: the gallery is very light and so each image is set back in the box to create a bit more depth and shade to see it in. All three images show sections of wings, but each is quite different from the others. One is a bumblebee, two are honeybees.

Bee Museum

Since the opening of the exhibition I've been on a little trip and again i went to Feucht.
While on a walk we saw the bee keeping school - a lovely little hut on a small meadow where bee keepers learn their trade. In the sides of the hut are openings for bees to get in and out - there were about 10 hives in the hut.
Also in the village is the bee keeping museum (mentioned earlier in the blog). Being a Bank Holiday though it was shut.*

Also - my friend Charles sent me this info on The Urban Beekeeping Experience events in Sheffield - www.buzzy-work.co.uk

Plus Suzanne sent me a link to Klaus Weber's artwork on bee poo paintings (i mentioned his work on the blog a while ago too) http://www.list.co.uk/article/21058-klaus-weber-bee-paintings/

*It doesn't matter where i go on the planet it'll be shut because of
1) A random local holiday
2) Change over between exhibitions
3) Redevelopment of the whole building / museum / historic site.