Chris Jordan, Plastic Bags, 2007, photography
This photographic collage depicts 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds.
Peter Coffin, Untitled (Bees Making Honey)
Set amidst the lush greenery of the park, Coffin’s installation will bring a full scale apiary to the garden grounds. As part of the work, Coffin is hiring a professional beekeeper to stand guard, as well as tend to the bees and monitor their production of honey. The beekeeper will also explain the role of the sun in the bees’ production of honey to visitors, as well as give out samples of the Storm King honey and honeycomb. (via)
We are mesmerized by this sculpture created out of natural honeycomb by Canadian artist Aganetha Dyck.
Tomas Libertiny, Unbearable Lightness
Did you know that bees have been creating honey for more than 100 million years?
40,000 worker bees were released into the case to create a wax honeycomb structure over the sculpted morm. The artist managed to lure the bees to construct their hive precisely over the figure. They worked incessantly, creating a complete honeycomb skin, filling each cell with honey and then transferring it to the beehive, cleaning the wax cells they originally created.
Libertiny introduced a natural red pigment (the only color bees can not see) into the mold which the bees spread evenly across the whole figure. (via)
Themed Thursday: Bees
Have you recently thought about how important bees are? Without their pollination, life on earth would not exist. For this week’s Themed Thursday, we will honor these insects by posting artworks inspired by bees all day. If you have any suggestions for a work that we should feature, please send us an ask!
Regine Ramsier, Migration, 2006
Ramsier dug 800 maize roots, washed, dried and dyed them. The maize symbolizes how corn is a plant of migration, as it was originally from Central America and has spread all over the world. Her work demonstrates the painful process of migration, which is why she uses uprooted plants and the vivid color of red.
Christo and Jean Claude, Running Fence, heavy woven white nylon fabric hung from a steel cable strung between 2,050 steel poles, California, 1976
This two week installation was 18 feet high, 24.5 miles long on the private properties of 59 ranchers, following the rolling hills and dropping down to the Pacific Ocean at Bodega Bay, north of San Francisco.
The art project consisted of 42 months of collaborative efforts, the ranchers’ participation, 18 public hearings, three sessions at the Superior Courts of California, the drafting of a 450-page Environmental Impact Report and the temporary use of the hills, the sky and the ocean.
All expenses for the temporary work of art, north of 2 million dollars, were paid by Christo and Jeanne-Claude through the sale of studies, preparatory drawings and collages, scale models and original lithographs. The artists did not accept sponsorship of any kind.
Many questioned if this is actually a work of art. What do you think? Do you think a project like this would be able to occur in 2013?
These installations in the Finnish countryside utilize nature to create new sculptural forms. These works symbolize the connection between man and nature, as man owes his success to the bounty of nature and nature is as alive as human beings are. Environmental works of art try to draw attention to the beauty of our natural landscape to remind us that we should preserve our planet.
One day each year – April 12 in 2014 – people all over the world visit local museums and galleries to look at art slowly. Participants look at five works of art for 10 minutes each and then meet together over lunch to talk about their experience. That’s it. Simple by design, the goal is to focus on the art and the art of seeing.
