Sunroom Project Space
Throughout history the bee and the hive have been used as symbols to articulate themes of perfection, utopianism, architecture, work, and slavery. And now, in the twenty-first century, the rapid decline of bee populations has become a harbinger of global environmental crisis’s. Over the past three years Christopher Russell has been exploring the intense world of bees through a series of ceramic sculptures. Bee Work comes out of the tradition of scientific models and the decorative arts. Russell has many visual inspirations, including Dutch still-life paintings and nature illustrations. For example, in developing his compositions, Russell looked at John James Audubon's illustrations with their stylized pairings of birds and plants. His fascination with the interrelationship between bees and plants can be seen in Pollen, based on the magnified structure of the nourishing substance that carries a plant’s genetic material. Installed here, Bee Work offers a rare view of the bee in the context of the garden.
For more information visit www.russellproject.com
Support for the Visual Arts Program is provided by Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc., Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Community Trust Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, and by the Cathy and Stephen Weinroth Commissioning Fund for the Arts.