It’s been said that beekeeping is an art, treading a fine balance between knowledge of bee behaviour and the cycles of development of local plant life. Beijing-based Chinese artist and beekeeper Ren Ri combines this art with a mathematical bent, creating delicate polyhedral sculptures of plexiglass that house intricately constructed beehives.
Ren Ri, who began beekeeping only in 2008, explains on Cool Hunting why he chose this living medium:
Beeswax is a very special material; it’s unstable and can change shape with temperature. The structure of wax cells is orthohexagonal, which is an inconceivable feature in the natural world and it’s a peculiarity of honeybees. Another reason behind the choice of bees is that I wanted to try to eliminate the subjectivity of the artist and the mediation of bees served this purpose.
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Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell with Google Hangouts On-Air is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
