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Hive drawing session, 19 November 2019 at Kudos Gallery, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen
Kath Fries, Penelope Cain, Barbara Doran and visitors Fiona Davies, Michele Morcos |
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| Hive drawing session, 19 November 2019 at Kudos Gallery, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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| Hive drawing session, 19 November 2019 at Kudos Gallery, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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| Hive drawing session, 19 November 2019 at Kudos Gallery, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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Hive drawing session, 19 November 2019 at Kudos Gallery, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen
Kath Fries, Penelope Cain, Barbara Doran and visitors Fiona Davies, Michele Morcos |
Hive Drawing is a 400cm wide scroll drawing using handmade beeswax crayons, pollen and turmeric. Each participant joins their closed hand to the outline of a proceeding one and draws around its circumference, continuously building onto what has been drawn before. The subtle wax markings are then dusted with pollen and turmeric, making them more visible. Both honey and turmeric are often referred to as superfoods as they have natural active compounds with potent ant-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Brushing the turmeric and pollen onto the wax drawing by hand is also suggestive of the crisis of insect pollinator losses, in some parts of China farmers have to pollinate their crops by hand, painstakingly spreading pollen from plant to plant using a paintbrush. Hive Drawing (collaboration) brings people into contact with the tactile and aromatic nature of these materials, connecting them to each other via this haptic hand mapping. The work will grow and unfurl over the duration of the exhibition, tracing out further interconnections and shifting understandings linked by the honeycomb-like repeated shapes of each individual participating hand.
This work is part of the Super-organism exhibition by Kath Fries, Penelope Cain and Barbara Doran, exploring pattern finding and self-organising systems. The term super-organism is usually used to describe an interdependent social organisation where individuals are not able to survive by themselves for extended periods. Classically this term is applied to insects, but we are reinterpreting it more widely negotiating the interdependence of individuals and the collective nature of exchange systems. As the anthropocentric world has become increasingly digitalised, expanded notions around super-organisms as a mode of being are becoming increasingly relevant.
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| Hive drawing, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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| Hive drawing, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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| Hive drawing session, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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| Hive drawing session, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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| Hive drawing session, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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| Hive drawing session, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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| Hive drawing session, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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| Hive drawing session, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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| Hive drawing session, Kath Fries studio, November 2019, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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| Hive drawing, Kath Fries, November 2019, Kudos Gallery, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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| Hive drawing, Kath Fries, November 2019, Kudos Gallery, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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| Hive drawing, Kath Fries, November 2019, Kudos Gallery, beeswax crayons, turmeric and pollen |
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Our Super-organism project plays out as generative and responsive evolving conversations, beginning with an interest in honeybees as a typical super-organism and an indicator species of ecological change. This expands into creative engagements with human systems of economy from an individual and colony perspective; to systems of information exchange, from the analogue of speech, breathing and wing-vibration, to digital networks and eco-systems. Such creative engagements contribute to wider haptic discourses addressing the growing need to develop embodied practices of interconnection that draw on ecological resilience.
… At this point in history, now that we have locked in ecological disruption on a scale our species has never known, we must learn the lessons of ecology. And the number one lesson is that resilience is the key. Resilience, not dominance, is the real strength, especially in hard times. And the secret to resilience is connected diversity, cohesion, cooperative coexistence. That means that in many ways our most important task right now is to build social cohesion while learning to live within natural limits ... all these point the way towards holding off the worst ecological impacts of climate disruption while building the resilience to avoid the societal collapse it could trigger …
- Tim Hollo, As the climate collapses, we can either stand together or perish alone, The Guardian, 10/10/19 link
For this exhibition we have developed some physical outcomes from our conversations about super-organisms as modalities to negotiate the interdependence of individuals and the collective nature of exchange systems. In the gallery space, the works unfold this concern in an organic series of static, moving and participatory works, utilising physical space, sound and smell. Avoiding perpendicular lines, smooth surfaces and resolved edges, these works invite engagement, change and messiness.
Super-organism
Kath Fries, Penelope Cain, Barbara Doran
15 October - 2 November 2019
Kudos Gallery, 6 Napier St Paddington NSW
Wed-Fri: 11am-6pm. Sat: 11am-4pm
Closing panel discussion: Saturday 2 November 2-4pm
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The artists would like to thank Cynthia Loh, Chloe McFadden, Carmen Scheib, Audrey Pfister, Vivienne Fries, Aryadharma Matheson, Fiona Davies, Michele Morcos and Paul Cordiero for their assistance and support.
This exhibition is taking place on Gadigal country, we acknowledge and pay our respects to the traditional custodians of this land, to their elders past, present and emerging.
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