Bees hum in the key of C…

This morning was spent in the rather lovely surroundings of Kew Gardens, where artist Wolfgang Buttruss has just installed his award winning installation The Hive – originally conceived for last years Milan Expo’, where it won Gold Medal for Architecture and Landscape. Buttress creates sculptures which seek to define and celebrate a sense of place. Recently his work has drawn inspiration from nature and collaborations with scientists to interpret scientific discoveries – one such was that bees hum in the key of C…

Towering 17 metres high and made up of 170,000 pieces of aluminum fabricated together to suggest a swarm of bees, Buttress says he sees the bee as a ‘sentinel’ for the health of our planet.  The siting of the work in the particular context of Kew, which has at least 50 of the 270 bee species in the UK including a number of rare species, and the setting of The Hive in a beautifully conceived scoop of a wild flower meadow,  provides the artwork with a powerful narrative.

The Hive with its ambient soundscape of bees humming in the key of C, combined with cello and vocals, along with the listening posts which you access by putting a small wooden stick in you mouth and blocking you ears to hear bees from the Kew hives, combine to make an immersive, mesmerising and emotional installation.

Buttress’ ambition was to combine art, landscape and architecture into one experience –  go and enjoy the secret life of bees…