'You're less likely to kill something you love'
Bees: A Story of Survival is an awe-inspiring combination of art and science at World Museum Liverpool
“You're less likely to kill something that you love,” is the simple but powerful concept behind World Museum Liverpool’s stunning new flagship exhibition, which perfectly captures the sense of wonder we feel when confronted with the overpowering miracle of nature.
“Fundamentally, it‘s to emotionally express how incredible, amazing and important bees are,” continues Wolfgang Buttress, the artist behind Bees: A Story of Survival. “I always think if you can tell a story and connect to people's feelings they are possibly more likely to pay attention, or at least be moved. So the intention here is to create a series of environments where people hopefully will understand a bit more about bees. By the end of it, they'll come to love them.”
Unless you suffer from severe apiphobia, then you’d have to be extremely hard-hearted not to at least feel some empathy for these incredible creatures who have survived on our planet for around 120 million years yet are now dying in unprecedented numbers.
The exhibition draws you in with the playful - a tiny flickering digital bee on a bloom as you step into the first darkened room; a meadow of flowers trapped in cubes of glass, each one a tiny, perfect work of art; an interactive display where you can experience the vibrations, whoops and toots bees use to communicate. Then it hits you with the awe-inspiring - a swarm depicted as pinpricks of light on a room of narrow, glass pillars; a pathway through a series of giant fabric-covered metal honeycombs projected with a seemingly giant bee colony.
And just as you’ve basically decided that bees are the most beautiful, precious creatures on Earth, you find yourself in a room called Vanishing - a devastating, assault of a piece that imagines the natural world fading and dying because we’ve killed all the bees.
As you stagger out, in mourning and despairing of the human race, you’re again presented with the beauty of nature in the form of the art work Symphony. The info panels describe it as “an ever-changing abstract painting made of light”, which is a perfectly serviceable way of expressing it. But like most of the works in this exhibition, there is a crevasse between words’ ability to describe it and the experience of seeing it for yourself.
There’s quite a lot of fascinating scientific information about bees here if you want it, but it’s the artistic interpretation of the science that makes it so meaningful. Without the art, the science would be dry. But without the science, the art would merely be beautiful.
“To me, it was really important that art and science really talk to each other,” says Buttress. “It's possibly like a 20th century conceit, where things became more compartmentalised. Whereas prior to that, science and art were trying to make sense of what it is to be human, just in different ways. So, to me, it's really important that there's a conversation between the two, that one isn't more important than the other.
“I think art can help create a sense of wonder, a sense of empathy. It can connect to something which maybe just words can’t, it can connect to all of the senses.”
Music and sound are a fundamental element of the exhibition. Each room has a different musical soundtrack, while the buzzing of a bee colony is played live through the gallery’s sound system. Buttress was inspired by the work of Prof Martin Bencsik, with whom he has collaborated on a number of projects. Prof Bencsik discovered the complexity of bee communication by measuring the vibrations inside hives and colonies.
“Through that we can actually hear bees talking either to each other or to us or to the planet,” says Buttress.
“When I first picked up a frame of bees, it looked amazing - it was like 10,000 bees crawling around - and it smelled amazing. But it was the sound, this kind of low, deep visceral kind of hum, which really got me. Everything just felt alive.
“When you hear music and sound, you are completely in the moment, it's not a memory of something, it's not a kind of an impression of the future, you're hearing it now and in the moment. So I kind of imagined the exhibition very much like a song. Even though each one of the spaces is quite abstract, the music kind of makes sense of it. Some of the rooms are sadder, some a bit more uplifting, some very, very quiet. But at the heart of that of each one of the rooms is the sound of the bees.”
How dire is the plight of bees?
“There's still hope,” says Leanna Dixon, assistant entomologist at World Museum Liverpool, whose job includes recording and surveying invertebrates across the North West.
“But if we continue to destroy habitats, for example covering over gardens with plastic lawns, it's just bad news for bees. If we provide them with pollen, and nectar through wildflowers, provide them with places to nest and shelter, that’s going to really help and hopefully bring them back from the brink.”
There are more than 270 species of bee in the UK, including many that aren’t as easily recognised as honey or bumble bees.
“We have ones that are brown and fluffy, and some that have practically no hair at all and look perhaps more like like a wasp than a bee,” says Leanna. “We have ones that nest in holes in the ground, and in wood or in plant stems, and mason bees that nest in walls. These types of bees are solitary and they don't live in a social colony.”
‘There’s still hope’ - Leanna Dixon, assistant entomologist at World Museum Liverpool
Having dedicated her career to observing insects, it’s only natural that Leanna should have a favourite - the hairy-footed flower bee.
“In fact, we saw some yesterday in front of the museum in a little meadow we've got there,” she says. “The female is a standard sort of round and black, and she has legs which are orangey-brown which she uses to collect pollen. But male is my favourite because he has hairy feet - really long hairs on his middle legs. When he's mating with the female, he'll wave them around in the air.”
Aside from eschewing plastic grass, there are many little things we can do that can have a big impact on bee health, says Leanna.
They include:
Leaving your lawn to grow longer to allow wildflowers to bloom. Dandelions are a particular favourite of many insect species.
Growing lavender - even a single pot on a window ledge.
Not worrying about having a perfectly manicured garden - bare patches in the grass are home to mining bees.
Bees: A Story Of Survival is at World Museum Liverpool from tomorrow until May 5, 2025. Adults £12, under-11s free, concessions available.
Thank you for reading this week’s Stored Honey, if you value the independent writing in this newsletter there are a number of ways you can support it:
🍯Become a Stored Honey member for £4 per month and receive exclusive additional content, including a monthly round-up of must-see theatre, art and cultural events and early access to the Stored Honey podcast.
☕Buy me a virtual coffee with a small one-off donation via ko-fi.
📱Share this week’s edition on social media.
👋 Refer friends and family to read Stored Honey and you can get up to three months free access to exclusive members-only content.
If you are an arts organisation or individual who would like to be featured in a future edition, get in touch on X/Twitter, in the comments or by dropping me a line at tostoredhoney@gmail.com.
Have a great week,
Laura
