An aluminium sculpture in London’s Royal Botanic Gardens brings to light a global problem: the worryingly increasing rate of extinction of numerous animals and fauna, including bees.
In Europe, one in ten species of Bee are threatened by extinction. This is a result of pesticides, parasites and monoculture farming – the practice of producing only one crop at a time. Bees, and pollination, are a fundamental part of the production process of fruits and flowers – we depend on them to help make our produce healthy and attractive.
In London’s Botanic Gardens there is an active program of Bee preservation, with Bee Masters helping the insects to make good use of the Garden’s abundance of flowers.
There is nothing better than art when it comes to getting people’s attention. The British artist Wolfgang Buttress has built a 17-metre-high structure resembling a bee-hive, interlaced with 170 thousand pieces of aluminium. Inside the structure, audio-visual effects recreate the sensation of being inside a real bee colony. The work is due to remain on location at Kew Gardens up until November 2017, as part of efforts to remind people of the importance of Bees and their preservation.
For further information: http://www.kew.org/visit-kew-gardens/explore/attractions/hive
