Habitat Bee Project – 2021

Habitat is a project that commenced at the BigCi Art Residency in Bilpin. My aim is to bring greater visibility to bees and their declining population by developing aesthetically engaging architectural clay structures or hives. Bees are severely impacted particularly in Australia since the Black Summer fires. The loss of billions of insects is little understood, and there are consequences for humans because bees are major pollinators and sustain biodiversity. 

My intention is to avoid stereotypical beehive forms normally associated with the human built environment by designing hives that exemplify bees and their natural environment. During the Professional Artist Residency at Sturt Craft Centre the beehives evolved in response to the exquisite u-shapes and hexagonal prismatic cell structures built by bees in the natural environment. The Honeycombing series emerged alongside the beehives. A series of terracotta vessel forms respond to the architecture of honeycombing and the fluidity of honey.