BEE OR NOT TO BEE
This honey bee is big just as the contribution bees have to the world's food supply. Don't be intimidated by this bee’s size. Get close. Draw your hands over her body. She has long hair, curved limbs, deep eyes. You're not vulnerable and nor should a bee be vulnerable to us.
We love creating whimsy with our installations, mostly through the materials we select. For Burning Man 2019 we chose unique materials we had never worked with before.
One new material was nylon industrial broom bristle. Appearing as the long, delicate hair of a bee. The hairs are fun to draw hands through, yet durable enough to spring back into form.
The another new material attached to the flower base was 33,000 glass, toy marbles. At night, LED light passed through the marbles to illuminate the installation.
We made the big compound eyes to seem penetrating, painted with iridescent paints and coated with multiple layers of lacquer for depth.
The wings were built with perforated mesh steel and reinforced with tubing. We coated the wings with gold iridescent paints.
We create installations that have a visual trick that on examination become a tactile experience. We have learned from past projects that visitors to art become participants when they stay longer with the art to explore it. Bee or Not to Bee’s use of broom bristles and marbles delivers a unique tactile experience.
After Burning Man Bee or Not to Bee was shown at Burning Man’s San Francisco Decompression and a few weeks later at the East Bay Mini Maker Faire event.
Due to the COVID crisis the planned showings of the bee at music festivals and art fairs were cancelled. Bee or Not to Bee was though brought to Sacramento’s Summer Spark event where its ingenious organizers made it possible for thousands of visitors to tour Burning Man art in the safety of their automobiles.
Bee or Not to Bee was given a home thanks to the efforts of the art supportive organization We Are From Dust. Their group mission is to place Burning Man art in communities outside of Burning Man. In January 2021, WAFD brought the bee to Point San Pablo Harbor, an eclectic community near Richmond, California that displays Burning Man art with concerts, events and food.
