"Hive at Rice" activates a 24' by 50' wide building facing the Rice Solar Studios along Alumni Road and College Way. The projection appeared nightly from dusk to dawn from September 2020 to June, 2021.

I developed an enduring interest in bees more than a decade ago, after learning about Colony Collapse Disorder, a strange phenomenon involving the sudden loss of a colony’s worker bee population, leaving the queen and young bees behind. Since hives cannot sustain themselves without workers supporting the queen and her brood, the colonies would collapse and die.

"Hive at Rice" compares the resilience and interconnectivity of the insect community to that of human society. Filmed at a private hive in Houston, I digitally edited the footage, reducing the speed of the bees’ movements and heightening the dark-light contrast, so the viewer can closely observe these fascinating creatures who pollinate one-third of the global food supply. Projecting the film in an endless loop onto the side of this tensioned, fabric structure, "Hive at Rice" implies that these creatures, like their human counterparts, live and work together inside.

 

Sketches for "Hive at Rice"