Anthrocomb

Anthrocomb was commissioned for the 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Monster Theatres, and installed in the Adelaide Botanic Garden. The work transformed the architecture of a beehive into a space for intimate human encounter, inviting participants to lie directly above a living colony of more than 50,000 honeybees. Separated from the colony while remaining in close physical proximity to it, participants encountered the bees through heat, scent, sound, and vibration.

The work emerged from my longstanding research into honeybees, beekeeping, and human–honeybee relationships, and explored the possibility of cultivating ecological awareness through direct multisensory encounters with other species. Rather than representing the honeybee as an ecological symbol, Anthrocomb created a situation in which the boundaries between human and hive could be temporarily unsettled and the normally concealed sensory world of the colony could be experienced through the body.

The installation brought together living biological systems, architecture, performance, ceramics, and ritual. A bespoke ceramic tea service developed with JamFactory extended the encounter beyond the hive, drawing upon traditions of hospitality and communal exchange. Through these elements, Anthrocomb considered interspecies care, ecological interdependence, and the possibility of developing more intimate relationships with the more-than-human world.