Chinese artist Ren Yue lets bees make his art for him. “I wanted to try to eliminate the subjectivity of the artist and the mediation of bees served this purpose,” he says of his series, Yuansu II. To make the art, he used totally symmetrical clear plastic polyhedrons to allow the bees freedom to create their honeycombs without human influence.
Coolhunting describes Ri’s methodology:
During the production of each piece, the queen bee is kept at the center of the geometric space (marked with one or more wooden sticks) which results in the other bees gathering around her, to start building around the center. Every seven days (a reference to the seven days of creation), Ren Ri changes the gravity of the honeycomb by rotating the box on a different side, determining it by a throw of dice.
The resulting sculptures are some pretty gorgeous representations of nature’s native designs. Yuansu II is on display at T-Museum in Hangzhou, China until August 7th. (Images Courtesy Ren Ri)
