What’s all the buzz about?
Te Atamira’s latest exhibition opens on Tuesday, Let the Honey Soak Through. Inspired by bee networks and their relationship with the environment, the installation will include a range of works exploring the patterns that bees create to sustain their lives, replicated by human systems, hiveware, keepers and agricultural formations.
Brainchild of artists Taarn Scott and Hana Pera Aoake (Ngāti Hinerangi, Ngāti Mahuta, Tainui/Waikato, Ngāti Waewae, Tauranga), the pair first came together during covid when they were sharing a studio together in their hometown of Ōtepoti Dunedin on Stuart Street.
“The initial source of inspiration for the exhibition came in the form of building cladding we saw in the UK that incorporated solitary nesting tunnels or holes,” Scott says.
Pera Aoake adds “So from this, we thought what making our own version could look like and what that could look like if it was implemented in Aotearoa, especially because there are 28 native bees and 27 are endemic – they’re solitary but they’re still pollinators.”
And that fact is something that many people aren’t aware of – these 27 endemic species don’t produce honey or beehives. Ngaro huruhuru bees are as vital as ever for understanding the complexity of te aitanga pepeke (the insect world) in climate adaptation.
The artists feel it’s important to draw attention to these replicating systems and patterns that are integral to our lives and biodiversity, pollination and produce. These building blocks of life invite us to slow down and notice the cycles of repair and our entanglement as humans with lifeforms big and small.
“People will take different things from the show, so we don’t necessarily come to our work with specific things that we want people to think or feel. In saying that I think that good art is always something we can learn from – we can impart some knowledge or curiosity, then take that back into our lives.”
Most of the work was created in Driving Creek in the Coromandel as part of an artist’s residency. Driving Creek was once home to Barry Brickell, New Zealand potter, writer, conservationist and founder of Driving Creek Railway. When they were there, Scott and Pera Aoake were able to experiment with new materials and methods, which propelled them into their own making.
“We’ve been working with clay for about six years and so we were like ‘let’s make bricks, we’ve never made bricks before’,” Pera Aoake says.
They created all the bricks by hand, which lends them their own character. Putting everything together for the exhibition has been a process of its own, too. While they always have an idea of how everything will come together, they try to make it intuitive and as site-specific as possible.
“We are lucky enough to be here for a week in the lead up to the opening, and it’s really, really nice to have time in the space. Especially with us both being based up North, this will probably be the bulk of the time that we get to sit with the work and see how it all feels together,” Scott says.
Let the Honey Soak Through will run at Te Atamira until 27 April. Opening Words will take place at the exhibition from 5.30pm on Tuesday, 10 February – all are welcome and it’s free to attend. For more information head to teatamira.nz/events/let-the-honey-soak-through
