Dalston, London Honey Raw and Unfiltered
Harvested 03/08/10 from my studio @ 36 Stamford Road N1 4JL
120ml for 15£ *** uk mainland shipping included ***
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This project interrogates the border between fear and hope of an event and the prosaic preparations surrounding the possible event. I have created a series of vessels that attract swarming bees, called bait-hives. The vessels contain a custom designed bee attractant that I have created by taking the queens pheromone and mixing it with various essential oils and beeswax. This mixture attracts bees from up to 5 kilometers, engaging their swarming instinct encoring them leave their current hive to take resident in my bait-hives. In attempts to expand my current apiary, I have set up a network of bait-hive hosts throughout London. The hosts were selected due to their proximity to current beehives, making it very likely that, one day, 20,000+ bees will swarm into the space to inhabit the hive. This scenario forces the bait-hive hosts to confront their comfort level with this object. Do they want to attract a swarm to their space? Are they excited or scared of the prospect of living so close to a swarm of bees?
As monoculture fields are transforming the country landscape, bees are finding it essential to move to the much more biodiverse urban spaces. Similarly, as more people are moving to cities we are faced with a lack of housing and infrastructure, often ending in the development of slums. These areas, however, are buzzing with life. People are developing alternative methods of survival, creating new services and means of trade. The Rough Luxe Hives are created for the displaced urban bees. I have given them a home that allows for them to go about their daily lives in a very natural bee-efficient method.
The Rough Luxe Hives are installed on the roof of the Rough Luxe Hotel in Kings Cross, London.
Becoming Critter is a series of exercises designed to challenge participants to use their imagination to reshape their relationship with nature. The exercises train the participant to walk and eat “as if” they were another animal (wolf, antelope, bear, coyote, etc). Through slow meditative and sensory training, the exercises are intended to create subtle connections between the physical acts of eating and walking and the participants’ perception of themselves as animals.
It is safe to say that you have at some point in your life experienced the spectacle of the cinema. For this proejct I chose to use a similar method as the cinema to present visitors with a chance to watch the drama of the environment in which the Market Estate was contained. Working with the physics of light, I created a room-sized camera obscura, which allowed visitors a moment of observation and contemplation. The visitors to Flat 35 on March 6th 2010 where given one last chance to see this spectacular sight.
The building, in which this project was created, is awaiting demolition.
A collaboration with designer Louise O'Conner, Communing Through Costuming is an exploration of the power of costume to transform one's perspective to allow for alternative engagements within the world they find themselves. After spending days in the forest with wild animals, Louise and I used costume as a means to empower ourselves to engage with these creatures. Through dress we experienced the forest with new senses, we became: spreaders, gatherers, resters, spectacles, seeders, and performers. We designed our clothing to allow us to feel more a part of the forest, less of a visitor.
A reminder that, while we may feel to be outsiders, we are a part of nature.
