Honeybees and Artists

By: KuhaneGuy | Jul 19, 2007 |  2

Categories: Arts & Artists, Artevist

As the son of a beekeeper, I couldn't help but write this article. Even though Artevist focuses on the arts and T-shirts, we love hearing about artists exploring ways to bring awareness to global issues.

That bees and other pollinating insects are essential to agriculture and thus human wellbeing is not a fact lost on Aganetha Dyck. Dyck is a Winnipeg, Manitoba artist who has gained recognition for her innovative use of working honeybees as protagonists in her artistic expression.

By placing objects and illustrated material in a beehive, Dyck creates wax sculptures in collaboration with the bees. Some of her collections have included women's shoes, clothes hangers and sports paraphernalia. She has learned enough about bee behaviour over the past decade to be able to influence the way in which the bees take to their work. Her pieces display incredible creativity, ingenuity and wit. Most of all, her work is a medium through which nature speaks to the viewer.

Honeybees are receiving greater interest from the scientific community as recent increases in bee mortality (Colony Collapse Disorder) may be yet another barometer of deteriorating environmental conditions. Dyck's work attracted the attention of Dr. Mark Winston of Vancouver's Simon Fraser University, a leading bee behaviourist. He and Dyck were recently featured in "Bee Talker" a one-hour "The Nature of Things" TV documentary with Dr. David Suzuki.

Aganetha Dyck has exhibited extensively in Canada and internationally since 1975. She has won several awards, including the 2007 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts and the 2007 Manitoba Arts Council's Award of Distinction. Dyck's website illustrates her work and includes upcoming exhibitions.

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[edit] Apocryphal quote
A quote that has appeared in many of the news features about CCD is, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

This quote has been attributed to Albert Einstein; however, the original source for this quote has not been reported, and the earliest known use of the quote is from 1994, 39 years after Einstein’s death.[74]

By: Los Taco Grande
posted: July 21, 2007 at 12:38 PM