Kew Gardens: The Hive

 

I realised a long-held ambition recently by visiting Kew Gardens. We gave ourselves the whole day there, being onsite from 11.00 to nearly 6.00 pm; but still realised there is too much for one visit. Too much for one blog too; I am going to post separate articles for various aspects of Kew. This first is about the feature that really grabbed when I saw it and even more so once we walked inside it: The Hive. Created by Wolfgang Buttress for the Milan Expo in 2015, the Hive is, as the Kew website explains: 

'a visual tribute to Britain's honeybees' 

It has 170,000 parts and includes 1,000 LED lights. I am always attracted by Art that builds up from simple items to make a complex whole, whether it is Anthony Gormley's field (36,000 clay figurines laid out together at the Tate Back in 2004) or Bridget Riley's deceptive repeated lines. The Hive is a great example of this, with the struts and joins re-creating the shape of a beehive within it's cube:

When we look at bees, we feel a connection. They exist in a society where the individual performs a role, they demonstrate that they can learn and communicate what they have learned to each other, and they create architecture. Bees symbolise work and industry and, after the Manchester bombing, they became a powerful symbol of togetherness. The honeycomb structure is one humans have borrowed, as well as the hive shape. In Greece, the Bronze age societies there used the hive shape to create stunning tombs. In the present day, we are (belatedly) beginning to realise how important they are to our own survival through the role they play in plant pollination. 

As well as the lights, the Hive at Kew uses sound to create an effect, a constant humming in the register of C which provides the other sensory cue that reminds us of bees:

The Hive at Kew

The video provides a much better sense of the overall effect than my photographs; but I did manage one that gives that architectural impression. This was taken looking straight up and is an artwork in itself I feel: 

Follow the links for my other Kew posts: 

Strelitzia plants

The Water Lily House at Kew

Vistas at Kew