Its 170,000 pieces of aluminium
are a hive-like structure of latticework, controlled by the vibrations of
honeybees in a hive at Kew that is connected to the sculpture
Friday 17 June 201612.41 BSTLast
modified on Friday 17 June 201615.43 BST
“My approach to a sculpture seeks
to frame nature so one can experience it more intimately,” says British artist
Wolfgang Buttress, whose 17-metre high Hive
installation opens at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, in London on
Saturday. “I want visitors to feel enveloped, wrapped-up and involved in the
experience, rather than adopting the position of an external observer.”
Its 170,000 pieces of aluminium,
suspended from the ground, appear as a twisting swarm of bees from afar, but as
you come closer it becomes a hive-like structure of latticework whose low
humming sound and hundreds of flickering LED lights draws you in to a
multi-sensory instillation. The intensity of sound and light is controlled by
the vibrations of honeybees in an actual hive at Kew that is connected to the
sculpture.
Honeybees communicate primarily
with each other through vibrations. By biting a wooden stick connected to a
conductor, visitors to the Hive can get a sense of four types of vibrational
messages through the bones in their head. These include the tooting and
quacking signals that virgin queen bees make when they challenge each other in
a display of strength to determine who will be the queen of the hive; begging,
when a bee requests food from another another; and the waggle dance which
communicates the location of a good food source.
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